A vengeful Oprah Winfrey is striking back at former protégé Dr. Phil after he snared an exclusive with Octo-Mom!
In a chess move designed to heat up their behind-the-scenes feud, she’s approached Phil’s wife Robin McGraw about appearing on the cover of O, The Oprah Magazine.
"Oprah is trying to branch out from putting herself on the cover every issue. She knew offering Robin a spot would rub Phil the wrong way!" a source told The ENQUIRER.
"When Phil heard about it, he asked Robin, ‘They want us both, right? You know, we’re a team.’" When Robin told him that Oprah wanted only her, Phil looked like somebody had just run over his puppy. Later he turned nasty and said Oprah was trying to put him down."
Oprah launched Dr. Phil’s career by featuring him as a weekly guest on her show, and then produced his talk show starting in 2002. Sources say Oprah still owns a percentage of the Dr. Phil show, although Phil has been producing the show since they parted ways two years ago.
The two recently butted heads when Phil tried to launch his new daytime show The Doctors without telling her – while Oprah prepped her own series Dr. Oz, featuring Dr. Mehmet Oz, a heart surgeon who’s a regular on her show.
Then Phil scored exclusive interviews with Octo-Mom Nadya Suleman while Oprah’s staff was still negotiating to get her," said the source.
"It was like Phil stole Nadya from under their noses," said the source. "Oprah has been looking at new ways to tweak Phil – hence the cover offer to Robin."
