Lance Armstrong 'confesses to Oprah Winfrey he used performance-enhancing drugs' to win the Tour de France She did not reveal details of the interview ahead of its Thursday night air date on her OWN cable network and its website, but took to Twitter to say the exchange had lasted more than two and a half hours. "He came READY!" she tweeted. The announcement that Armstrong had agreed to an interview sparked widespread speculation that he might finally confess to being a drug cheat after years of adamant denials. Reporters, photographers and TV crews took up positions earlier across the street from Armstrong's opulent Austin home, where the interview took place and which is surrounded by an eight-foot (2.4-meter) high stone wall. USA Today had earlier indicated that the cyclist did not plan to go into great detail about specific cases and events. Armstrong's spokesman Mark Fabiani declined to address the reports, saying: "We have an arrangement with Oprah's team not to comment until the show is broadcast and we are honoring that." Before the taping, Armstrong personally apologizsd to staff members at Livestrong, the charity he founded to support cancer survivors. "Lance came to the Livestrong Foundation's headquarters today for a private conversation with our staff and offered a sincere and heartfelt apology for the stress they've endured because of him," Livestrong spokeswoman Rae Bazzarre said. She added that Armstrong - a cancer survivor who founded the charity in 1997 - urged Livestrong staffers "to keep up their great work fighting for people affected by cancer." Since the International Cycling Union effectively erased Armstrong from the record books, The Sunday Times has sued him for more than £1 million over a libel payment made to him in 2006.