Did police find human remains and evidence of cannibalism in TV producer Oprah Winfrey's Los Angeles, California, home that she purportedly sold in 2013? No, that's not true: This post reappeared on social media recently since it was copied from an older post. In the original post, the social media user implied that it was shared as a joke. There is also no publicly available evidence that Winfrey sold any properties in Los Angeles in 2013.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X on January 30, 2025. Above an image of Winfrey, the caption opened:
that time police found human remains and evidence of cannibalism in her LA home that she sold in 2013
Here is how the post looked at the time of the writing of this fact check:
(Source: X Screenshot taken on Fri Jan 31 18:56:12 2025 UTC)
The social media user that published the post, @ysmammri, left a comment (archived here) underneath the same post on January 31, 2025, acknowledging the X community note placed on the post. That community note implied that the claim police found human remains and evidence of cannibalism in Winfrey's LA home was fabricated.
A Google News search (archived here) using a combination of keywords did not display any credible news reports confirming this post's implied claim.
A search of the X platform archives produced a February 1, 2024, post by social media user @F41RYTA1L. This post carried the exact claim in the January 30, 2025, X post. In a February 2, 2024, comment underneath this post, which has since been deleted but can be seen in the archived screenshot, the posting user @F41RYTA1L implied that the claim was fabricated and confirmed that it was copied from an older post. The February 2, 2024, comment said: "...why are ppl actualy believint this, it's an old ass copypasta ... y'all believe anything."
A November 14, 2019, realtor.com article titled, "She Gets a House! And He Gets a House! Oprah Winfrey's Impressive Real Estate Portfolio," reported that Winfrey only sold three workspaces in 2013 that were all located in New York.
A December 26, 2023, House Beautiful article titled "A Look Inside Oprah Winfrey's Abundant Real Estate Portfolio" further confirmed that Winfrey did not sell any homes in 2013 and mentioned a house in Montecito, California -- not Los Angeles, California -- that she has been living in for the past two decades.
Lead Stories reached out to Winfrey's representatives for a statement verifying the validity of this claim. If a response is received, this fact check will be updated.
Other fact-check agencies have reviewed this claim, including PolitiFact and USA Today.
Read more
Additional Lead Stories fact checks mentioning Oprah Winfrey can be read here.
