Oprah Winfrey says ‘there wouldn’t have been an Oprah Show without Phil Donahue'

Oprah Winfrey is remembering her peer and friend, longtime TV host Phil Donahue, who died Aug. 18.

In an Instagram post Aug. 19, Winfrey shared a black-and-white image of herself smiling with Donahue, along with a sweet caption about his impact on her and the talk show world.

“There wouldn’t have been an Oprah Show without Phil Donahue being the first to prove that daytime talk and women watching should be taken seriously,” she wrote.

“He was a pioneer. I’m glad I got to thank him for it. Rest in peace Phil,” she finished the post, adding the prayer hands and dove emoji.

Donahue, who won several Daytime Emmy Awards, died Sunday night at the age of 88 following a long illness, his family said in a statement to TODAY.

No additional details pertaining to his cause of death have been released.

Known as a trailblazer in the TV world, he pioneered the modern issue-based daytime talk show with audience participation on “The Phil Donahue Show,” which began airing in the late 1960s.

Winfrey once described Donahue as "the first to acknowledge that women are interested in more than mascara tips and cake recipes—that we’re intelligent, we’re concerned about the world around us, and we want the best possible lives for ourselves."

She famously hosted her talk show, "The Oprah Winfrey Show," for 25 years, beginning in the 1980s.

She also interviewed Donahue for O, The Oprah Magazine in September 2002.

Winfrey told Donahue she wouldn't have her career if it wasn't for him.

"Did you know you were paving the way for a Black woman?" she asked.

"I have to be honest — we were so busy trying to keep the feather in the air that the last thing we worried about was other people’s careers," Donahue responded.

"We started locally in Dayton with two cameras and no stars — we could only afford to fly in two guests a week. We had no couches, no announcers, no band and folding chairs, no jokes. I wasn’t saying, 'Come on down!' We knew we were visually dull, so we had to go to issues — that’s what made us alive," he added.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com