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I remember hearing this rumor years ago.  It is a perfect example of negative P.R.

The rumor suggests that on Oprah’s show, she asked Hilfiger if he’d ever said, “If I had known African Americans, Hispanics, Jews and Asians would buy my clothes, I would not have made them so nice. I wish these people would not buy my clothes as they are made for upper class white people.” And when he said “yes” she asked him to leave the show.

Since I heard about that, I, and probably thousands of others, haven’t bought Hilfiger clothes.

But on an Oprah show last week, Oprah and Hilfiger revealed the incident never happened, and Hilfiger insisted he had never made the racist remark.

This cost Hilfiger probably millions of dollars, and heartache as well, he says.

It was a smart idea to refute this on Oprah.  But why did it take so long for him to be on Oprah?  It would have been good to nip this one in the bud long ago.