PHILADELPHIA, AP — Oprah Winfrey has settled a defamation lawsuit filed by the ex-headmistress of her girls school in South Africa, lawyers said Tuesday.

The lawsuit by former headmistress Nomvuyo Mzamane claimed Winfrey defamed her in remarks made in the wake of a 2007 sex-abuse scandal at the school.

The headmistress said she had trouble finding a job after.

A trial had been set to start next week. Winfrey and several schoolgirls had been expected to testify.

A joint statement released Tuesday by lawyers for both sides said Winfrey and Mzamane met “woman to woman” and resolved their differences.

When news of the scandal broke in 2007, Winfrey said she had “lost confidence” in Mzamane and was “cleaning house from top to bottom”.

A dorm matron at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls has been charged with abusing six students. Winfrey has called the allegations crushing given her own stated history of childhood sexual abuse.

The dorm matron, Tiny Virginia Makopo, has pleaded not guilty to 14 charges.

Mzamane claimed she didn’t know about any sexual abuse.

Mzamane, born in Lesotho, formerly worked at the private Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia and was living in the city when she filed suit two years ago. She earned $150,000 a year as the head of Winfrey’s academy.

Winfrey had planned to defend her remarks about Mzamane on free speech and other grounds, arguing she merely voiced her opinions.

Mzamane’s lawyers, who noted Winfrey’s huge media reach, contended listeners would think they were based on facts she had gleaned from the school’s internal investigation.

Winfrey, as the named defendant, would have had to attend the trial each day. She had rearranged the taping of her Chicago-based daily TV talk show, her lawyers said.