A man who says he lived with Oprah Winfrey and did drugs with her for four months in 1985 is suing her for allegedly keeping him from telling his story, a newspaper reported today.
Randolph L. Cook of Columbus is seeking $20 million in punitive damages for slander and emotional distress. The Columbus Dispatch said Cook filed the suit on Jan. 16 in U.S. District Court in Chicago, where Winfrey's show is based.Cook, 39, claims in the lawsuit that he and the talk-show host - who topped the latest Forbes magazine list of the world's 40 best-paid entertainers with a 1995-96 income of $171 million - lived together in Chicago between January and May 1985, and abused drugs together during that period.
Cook said he planned to sell the rights to his story, but Winfrey blocked those opportunities.
"Upon notification of my intent to publish my life story, Ms. Winfrey expressed outrage to the disclosure of truth and fact," Cook said in the lawsuit, according to the Dispatch. "She threatened everyone involved with my intended publication, causing great financial loss."
Winfrey flatly denies all of the allegations in Cook's lawsuit, according to a motion filed by her attorney to bar Cook from commenting on the lawsuit.
A telephone message seeking additional comment was left today at Winfrey's Harpo Productions.
Cook told the Dispatch on Thursday that at the time he met Winfrey, he was working for a Chicago real estate company.
"The reason I'm coming forward now is to seek some type of spiritual and mental resolution and closure for myself," said Cook, who said he is in drug recovery. "This has to do with my own healing process."
Steven Molo, a Chicago attorney representing Winfrey, said, "The lawsuit is absolutely without merit and a motion has been filed asking the judge to dismiss it."
U.S. District Judge Charles P. Kocoras in Chicago issued a gag order Thursday to prevent Cook from commenting on the lawsuit.