Media mogul Oprah Winfrey said she was “sad” by the response she received over a fundraiser she started with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
The fundraiser the two celebrities started was for the victims of the Maui wildfires in Hawaii, and Winfrey and Johnson donated $10 million to get it going. But in the wake of creating the fundraiser, the two received pushback online, with people pointing to how Winfrey and Johnson were already rich and that Winfrey had a home on the island that was not damaged in the fires.
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“I was so excited,” Winfrey said. “I was so excited about it, and then I got up the next morning, and I saw all of this vitriol, and I was, like, ‘Whoa, what happened here?'”
Winfrey said she was inspired by a fundraiser that musician Dolly Parton started in 2017 to help the victims of the Gatlinburg, Tennessee, wildfires, in which she donated $1,000 to each victim. Winfrey said the idea was to give money “directly to the people” and organized the fundraiser with Johnson, adding that they thought starting the fund with $10 million “was a great idea.”
The two announced their fundraiser on social media on Aug. 31, with the fundraiser called the “People’s Fund of Maui.” The two came together under the umbrella of the Entertainment Industry Foundation to create the fund, which is a Charity Navigator 4-star charity.
The fundraiser is accepting renters or owners who lost their residences as long as they are above the age of 18.
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Winfrey and Johnson’s fundraiser was announced after the Federal Emergency Management Agency would give $700 to each household affected by the wildfires. The amount of aid provided by FEMA has been largely criticized, including by local residents and disaster victims.
Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) has also criticized FEMA’s response, noting during The Joe Rogan Experience that Hawaii had the highest cost of living in the United States and that $700 was “fricking insulting.”
