AceShowbiz -

Previously had defended the author of best-selling memoir "A Million Little Pieces", James Frey, from the accusation of fabricating the book's key portions, Oprah Winfrey shockingly showed her reversal on her television show on Thursday Jan 26th in front of the writer himself and even made an apology to the audience. "I made a mistake," so she said at the opening of the live show. "And I left the impression that the truth does not matter, and I am deeply sorry about that because that is not what I believe."

To Frey, Winfrey also expressed her disappointment, asking him why he lied about what he had written in the book. "I feel duped," she told him. "But more importantly, I feel that you betrayed millions of readers." In his reply, the author finally admitted that he has made a mistake, adding that he had developed a tough-guy image of himself as a "coping mechanism" to help him address his alcohol and drug addiction. "And when I was writing the book, I -- instead of being as introspective as I should have been, I clung to that image," he said.