Lerato Nomvuyo Mzamane, the South African headmistress who ran Oprah Winfrey's Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa, has agreed to settle the defamation lawsuit she brought against the popular talk show host.

The very high-profile case was set to begin on March 29th in a Philadelphia federal court. According to published reports, the two women met peacefully, sans legal representation, behind closed doors. Statements issued by the legal teams of both sides made no mention of any financial settlement.

There is speculation that the former headmistress was seeking $250,000 in damages. Winfrey's lawyers, however, denied outright that there was ever such a monetary demand.

Mzamane had accused her former boss of character defamation, claiming that Winfrey allegedly made suspect remarks about her leadership abilities after the sex scandal broke involving the academy back in 2007. When Virginia "Tiny" Makopo, an employee at the school was charged with sexually and physically abusing 6 young girls, Mzamane accused Winfrey of casting aspersions, regarding how she ran the institution and handled the sex incident.

Harpo Productions, Inc., Oprah's multimedia company, released a statement regarding the settlement:

"The two parties met woman to woman without their lawyers and are happy that they could resolve this dispute peacefully to their mutual satisfaction. Ms. Winfrey testified in her deposition that she did not intend the implications placed on her words by the plaintiff. Ms. Mzamane testified in her deposition that she has no evidence that Ms. Winfrey knowingly made a false statement about her or entertained serious doubt about the truth of what she said. We are pleased both parties have reached a conclusion."

All's well, that ends well....