Oprah Recalled Her Most Embarrassing Moment When She Fell Offstage into a Hole

Even though Oprah Winfrey is one of the most famous and acclaimed hosts and presenters, she is only a human and has made some mistakes throughout her career.

One of the most memorable ones took place during the opening ceremony of the 1994 FIFA World Cup, held on June 17 at Chicago's Soldier Field. She didn't mispronounce someone's name or freeze in front of the cameras, no. She fell off the dais.

"I went straight through the plastic."

OPRAH WINFREY'S MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT

The 66-year-old actress and TV producer recalled the story in one of the episodes of the "Oprah Winfrey Show" that was uploaded to YouTube in November 2017.

She labeled the incident as the most embarrassing moment of her career.

After saying that the happiest moment of her life was working on "The Color Purple" – the film that skyrocketed her and Whoopi Goldberg's careers – Oprah vehemently stood up from her seat to talk about the previously mentioned opening ceremony.

The "Beloved" actress pointed out that she was chosen to be the MC of the event and was supposed to introduce the performers. The first one in the roster was Diana Ross, who also was the protagonist of another awkward moment. More on that later.

A TECHNICAL MISTAKE

Oprah revealed that, during a rehearsal on the day before the ceremony, she noticed that there was "this plastic" covering something then unknown for her that was the same color as the stage.

Since it could be dangerous, she asked the organizers to change it. Much to her surprise, they didn't.

The next day, right after introducing Diana Ross, she made her way off the stage but unfortunately fell through a hole that was being covered by nothing but plastic. Oprah said:

"I went straight through the plastic. I went down in this big pit, in the hole, fell, scarred up my legs, was bleeding, and couldn't get out, but I could still hear Diana singing."

Shortly after falling, four members of the security group carried her out of the pit "spread-eagle" and, after getting her legs bandaged, she "limped" back upstage and carried on with her job.

Oprah admitted that the only reason such an incident was not as publicized as one would expect was that the cameras were on Diana's presentation, so nobody watched her fall.

OPRAH WAS NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO FELL

The TV host added that she then introduced the parade of countries and that some of the members of Argentina fell in the hole, as well.

If that wasn't bad enough, Cuban American singer Jon Secada was supposed to perform, but just like Oprah, he fell in the infamous pit.

The show must go on, though, so he kept singing and spent half of his performance with most of his body in the hole. Jon eventually got out, but he was not as lucky as Oprah and his incident was captured on camera. Oprah finished her story saying:

"I'd always say this: you can't have an embarrassing moment because anything that has happened to you has already happened to somebody else. But I don't know anybody who fell in a hole at the [FIFA World Cup] in front of thousands of people and had to be carried out spread-eagle.

DIANA ROSS' PRESENTATION STARTED OFF WITH THE WRONG FOOT

Coming back to Diana Ross' awkward moment, she was supposed to shoot a penalty and score at the beginning of her performance, and as a result, the goal would split in two.

However, after taking a couple of seconds to get ready, Diana's shot went wide to the left. Despite the mistake, the goal collapsed according to the plan and the singer carried on with her show.

The opening ceremony didn't go as well as organizers pictured it, unfortunately. Still, it left us a hilarious story involving two legends of the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Diana Ross.