Oprahs emotional breakdown over her cocker spaniel

Oprah has dedicated today’s show to her beloved cocker spaniel Sophie, who passed away last month at the age of 13. Sophie had been suffering from kidney failure. It’s been an especially hard year for Oprah, pup-wise, as she lost her other dog Gracie in July when she chocked on a plastic ball. Today’s show is on puppy mills, and contributor Lisa Ling presents what’s said to be a great – but hard to watch – documentary on the mills. Oprah’s staff decided to surprise her by opening the show with a tribute to Sophie featuring movies and photos. Unfortunately they didn’t realize just how emotional it would make her, and they had to stop filming after she completely broke down.

E! News has learned the TV titan broke down last week during a taping when producers decided to surprise Oprah with a video tribute to Sophie, her cocker spaniel who recently passed away after a battle with kidney disease.

The special show, which is scheduled to air this Friday, features an investigation into puppy mills. An audience member tells E! News that Winfrey broke down when the tribute began. “She was crying hysterically,” says the source. “She was uncontrollably sobbing. She could barely breathe it got so bad.”

The source says Winfrey’s emotional breakdown became so severe that producers stopped taping. Our source says some Winfrey staffers were regretting the surprise tribute. “They were like, ‘Oh, no, we shouldn’t have done that.'”

[From E!]

That’s so sweet and sad. Clearly Oprah’s staff members were well-intentioned. People love their animals differently, but it’s pretty clear that Oprah’s dogs are her kids. There must be this bittersweet relationship with them, knowing that she’ll likely outlive the animals she loves so deeply. I can’t blame her for breaking down – a month isn’t long in the grieving process.

After watching Lisa Ling’s reports, Oprah said that she would never buy puppies from a breeder again. Though she’s claimed that her dogs weren’t from puppy mills, Winfrey says that from now on she will only adopt from shelters.

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