Lance Armstrong confessed to using performance-enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France during an interview with Oprah Winfrey, reversing more than a decade of denial. But it wasn't just Armstrong who chose the hugely popular platform to come clean. Here are nine other celebrity confessions.
Lance Armstrong
Casting aside her trademark warmth and brimming eyes, Winfrey wasted no time on niceties, plunging straight into short, direct questions that saw the seven-times Tour de France winner end years of denials.
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"Were you a bully?" Winfrey challenged Armstrong, referring to the pressure he put on cycling team mates to join him in taking performance enhancing substances.
"Tell me, how were you a bully?" she persisted at one point in the first 90-minute televised interview on her OWN cable channel.
Winfrey, 58, pioneered the art of confessional TV during her 25 year-long reign on her daytime chat show, making her comfortable couches the go-to place for celebrities wanting to apologize for indiscretions or unburden their darkest secrets.
Rihanna
R&B star Rihanna spoke about her former boyfriend Chris Brown in November last year and clarified that she was not dating the rapper. But at the same time the 24-year-old said she is on good terms with Brown. Earlier, in a revealing interview with Oprah, RiRi said Brown was still the love of her life, the abuse notwithstanding. She told Oprah that she misses him.
Mackenzie Phillips
Former child star Mackenzie Phillips revealed on Oprah's show on September 23, 2009 that she had an incestuous relationship for 10 years with her father, rock legend John Phillips.
Lisa Marie Presley
Perhaps opening up for the first time after the death of her former husband Michael Jackson, Lisa Marie Presley said the pop icon "became very good at trading and manipulating." She spoke about suspected drug use during her marriage and how it fell apart.
Gerald Imes
Gerald Imes, the older brother of American comedienne and Academy Award winning actress Mo'Nique, came clean on the show, admitting to molesting her as a child. "I'm here today to first acknowledge what I've been denial for for 37 years, and that is I did assault and inappropriately touch my sister in manners that were uncomfortable for her," he said. "And for that, I apologize."
Oprah's own sexual abuse as a child
In 1986, while doing a show with sexual abuse victims and their molesters, Oprah revealed that she was raped by a relative when she was 9 years old.
Tom Cruise
"That's how I feel about her, I'm in love," Cruise said, jumping onto a couch on the show, declaring his love for estranged wife Katie Holmes publicly for the first time. Since then, Cruise and Holmes have separated. But Cruise's exuberant display of affection for Holmes in the video went viral and was the subject of much amused speculation.
Terry McMillan confronts her gay ex-husband
American author Terry McMillan, whose book How Stella Got Her Groove Back, was made into a movie, confronted her ex-husband on the show after he confessed to being gay, six years into their marriage.
James Frey
Author James Frey confessed to making false claims in his memoir A Million Little Pieces.
Tyler Perry
American actor Tyler Perry confessed to being physically and sexually abused as a child. Perry said his father used to beat him up brutally as a child and he was sexually assaulted by three men.
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