Oprah Winfrey has said she is sorry that such a media storm was caused when she suggested that she was the subject of racism in a store in Switzerland.
The legendary talk show host alleged that a Zurich shop assistant refused to show her a purse because she assumed that Winfrey would not be able to afford it, prompting the Swiss tourism board to offer her an apology.
However, Winfrey has now told BBC News that she did not intend to cause such a furore with her comments.
"I think that incident in Switzerland was just an incident in Switzerland," she said. "I'm really sorry that it got blown up. I purposely did not mention the name of the store. I'm sorry that I said it was Switzerland.
"I was just referencing it as an example of being in a place where people don't expect that you would be able to be there. For me, racism doesn't show up. Nobody's going to come and call me the N-word to my face, unless they're a thug on Twitter or Facebook."
Winfrey continued: "I was just saying it shows up for me differently. I'm in a store and the person doesn't obviously know that I carry the black card, and so they make an assessment based upon the way I look and who I am."
Winfrey went on to joke that she had tried to make an effort with her appearance to avoid such an incident, quipping: "I cleaned up! I washed my hair and put on my Donna Karan skirt, because I know these people in stores can be very snooty pooty. So I thought, 'Let me dress so I don't get turned away', and it happened anyway. So I guess I didn't dress up enough.
"And I didn't have anything that said, 'I have money'. I wasn't wearing a diamond stud, I didn't have a pocketbook, I didn't wear a Louis Vuitton shoe. I didn't have anything - I just had a Donna Karan skirt, a top, and some sandals. You should be able to go in a store looking whatever you look like, and say, 'I want to see this'. That didn't happen."
However, Winfrey explained that she did not mean her comments as an "indictment" against Switzerland or the store involved.
"It just was one person who didn't want to offer me the opportunity to see the bag, so no apologies necessary from the country of Switzerland," she said. "If somebody makes a mistake in the United States are we apologizing for the whole country? No!"
Winfrey's comments come as the shop assistant involved in the row branded her claims "absolutely not true" and "absurd".