Oprah Winfrey shared details of her interview with Lance Armstrong with her friend Gayle King on CBS' “This Morning” Tuesday.
Winfrey said she came prepared with 112 questions to ask Armstrong in Austin, Texas on Monday, and got to ask most of them over a two-and-a-half hour interview.
“At the end of it, we were both pretty exhausted,” she told the morning show.
Winfrey said she did not trust putting the completed interview over a satellite transmission, and so carried the tapes back with her to her studio, where they will be turned into a two-night special, set to air Thursday and Friday on OWN.
Winfrey was contradictory in her characterizations of the interview, saying she was “satisfied” with Armstrong’s answers, calling them “thoughtful” and “serious,” but also saying “[Armstrong] did not come clean in the manner to which I expected.”
Winfrey said Armstrong’s lawyers were not allowed in the room during the interview.
Armstrong was stripped of all seven Tour titles last year following a voluminous U.S. Anti-Doping Agency report that portrayed him as a ruthless competitor, willing to go to any lengths to win the prestigious race.
USADA chief executive Travis Tygart labeled the doping regimen allegedly carried out by the U.S. Postal Service team that Armstrong once led, "The most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."
After a federal investigation of the cyclist was dropped without charges being brought last year, USADA stepped in with an investigation of its own. The agency deposed 11 former teammates and accused Armstrong of masterminding a complex and brazen drug program that included steroids, blood boosters and a range of other performance-enhancers.
