Compiled From Wire Services

Talk show hostess Oprah Winfrey broke down during a taping Wednesday of her show and admitted that she smoked crack cocaine when she was in her 20s.

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.

The show, taped in Chicago, will be televised Friday, the Post said.

Deborah Johns, a spokeswoman for the show was quoted 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 said. She declined to release a transcript of the show.

Winfrey began to cry before making the admission to her guests. Winfrey told a reporter 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.