15 January 2013
Last updated at 15:27 GMT
Watch Oprah Winfrey talk about her interview with Lance Armstrong, courtesy of CBS This Morning
Talk
show host Oprah Winfrey has said Lance Armstrong "did not come clean in
the way I expected" about claims he used performance-enhancing drugs.
She said she was "mesmerised and riveted" by what the former
cyclist, who has been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles, had
to say during their two-and-a-half hour interview.
She said she would leave it to others to decide whether he was contrite.
Armstrong, 41, has vehemently denied he took drugs during his cycling career.
He was accused last year by the US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada)
of what it called "the most sophisticated, professionalised and
successful doping programme" the sport had ever seen.
He is now said to be discussing whether to testify against sport officials.
'Surprising'
Ms Winfrey told CBS that the interview in his home town of
Austin, Texas, was so lengthy that it would be broadcast over two
nights, starting on Thursday.
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“Start Quote
I think the most important questions and the answers that people around the world have been waiting to hear were answered”
Oprah Winfrey
She said she had prepared well and took 112 questions into her interview with him, most of which she got to ask.
She said he was "serious and thoughtful", had prepared well for the interview, and "met the moment".
"I would say he did not come clean in the manner that I
expected," she told CBS, without giving further details. "It was
surprising to me. I would say that for myself, my team, all of us in the
room, we were mesmerised and riveted by some of his answers.
"I didn't get all the questions asked, but I think the most
important questions and the answers that people around the world have
been waiting to hear were answered," she also said.
Ms Winfrey told CBS that she had agreed with Lance Armstrong
and his team that they would not talk about what had been said until the
broadcast.
"By the time I left Austin and landed in Chicago, you all had
already confirmed it. So I'm like - how did you all do that? We all
agreed that we weren't going to say anything," she said.
"I'm sitting here now because it's already been confirmed."
When asked why Armstrong had agreed to the interview, Ms Winfrey said: "I think he was just ready."
'Legal issues'
The interview was recorded just hours after Armstrong
apologised to staff at the Livestrong Foundation but stopped short of a
full admission of guilt.
Nicole Cooke: "Lance robbed people of their dreams"
Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles, lost
most of his sponsorships and was forced to leave Livestrong after the
damning
Usada report.
Admitting doping might be a first step into trying to
mitigate his lifetime ban from competition. He is also said to be
planning to testify against powerful individuals in the world of cycling
- though not other cyclists - he will claim knew about or facilitated
the doping, sources said.
But an admission of guilt would raise legal issues as well as
further backlash from the cycling world and cancer community, in which
Armstrong is a prominent figure as a cancer survivor.
The New York Times has reported Armstrong's supporters are
concerned he could face perjury charges if he confesses to using
performance-enhancing drugs, because he testified in a 2005 court case
that he had never done so.
Former teammate Floyd Landis - who was stripped of his 2006
Tour de France title for doping - has filed a federal whistleblower
lawsuit accusing Armstrong of defrauding the US Postal Service, which
sponsored the team to the tune of more than $30m (£18.7m).
The US Department of Justice is considering whether to join
the lawsuit against him, reports say, and Armstrong's lawyers are said
to be in negotiations to settle the suit.
The UK's Sunday Times is already suing Armstrong for up to
$1.6m over a libel payment to him in 2004 after the newspaper alleged he
had cheated.
And a Texan insurance company is pursuing Armstrong for $11m
over insured performance bonuses paid to the American after he claimed
his fourth, fifth and sixth Tour de France victories.
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