Jaycee Dugard Dvf

March 11, 2012 by staff

Jaycee Dugard Dvf, Oprah Winfrey was embraced in a hug by longtime friend Diane von Furstenberg as she took to the stage to accept a “Lifetime Leadership” honor at the third annual DVF awards.

“She is the most formidable person I have ever met in my life,” the designer and humanitarian said of Winfrey at the event, held Friday night at the United Nations. “What is extraordinary about Oprah is that she has done so much and yet she is still a little girl. She is still very pure and you can make her cry and laugh so quickly.”

Upon accepting the award, Winfrey was expected to talk about her career, but instead used the majority of her time to praise another honoree, Jaycee Dugard, who was abducted when she was 11 years old and held in captivity for 18 years by Phillip and Nancy Garrido. She was raped and gave birth to two children before she was eventually rescued. Her captors were convicted.

“I wanted to have the opportunity to meet her and to tell her how much her story and her life meant to me,” she explained. “I said to Diane, ‘I know Diane Sawyer should be the one to introduce her, but would you please let me do it.'” Winfrey went on to thank Sawyer, who was also in attendance, and praised the television special she did with Dugard.