Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 13, 1995                   TAG: 9501130102
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

TV'S WINFREY ADMITS USING COCAINE

Winfrey, 40, was interviewing four mothers who had experienced problems with drugs when she turned to one of the guests who had admitted smoking crack and said, ``I did your drug,'' the newspaper said.

Another of the guests was Patricia Gaines, a Post reporter who has written a book chronicling her own experiences with drug abuse. The show, taped in Chicago, will be televised today, the Post said.

The Post quoted Gaines as saying Winfrey began to cry before making the admission to her guests. Gaines said Winfrey told her later that the drug use had been at the behest of man that she was involved with and that when the two parted, she stopped using drugs.

People associated with Winfrey's show could not be reached Thursday night.

But Deborah Johns, a spokeswoman for the show, was quoted by the Post as saying: ``Oprah made a spontaneous admission to mothers battling drug addiction that she also had used drugs.''

``... Oprah's words on the show are the best expression of how she feels,'' Johns told the Post. The newspaper said she declined to release a transcript of the show.

- Associated Press