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Thursday 27 June 2019

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey was born on January 29, 1954 in Kosciusko, Mississippi.

Her real birth name is "Orpah," the name of a biblical figure in the Book of Ruth. She changed it because people didn’t really know how to pronounce ‘Orpah’ and misspelt it as Oprah. Therefore she just stuck with it and began to call herself Oprah.

Oprah was born to a single teenage mother, Vernita Lee, a maid. Her father, Vernon Winfrey, had broken up with Oprah's mom long before she was born.

She spent her first six years living in rural poverty and wore potato sacks for clothes.

Oprah Winfrey 2014 By https://www.flickr.com/photos/aphrodite-in-nyc

During her childhood, Oprah Winfrey was molested by her uncle, cousin, and a family friend to the point where she ran away from home. When she discussed this with her family when she was older, they denied her allegations.

Oprah Winfrey gave birth at the age of 14 to a baby who died in the hospital weeks later.

She was crowned Miss Black Tennessee while in college and began co-anchoring the evening news when she was nineteen.


In 1985, Winfrey co-starred in Steven Spielberg's movie The Color Purple as distraught housewife Sofia. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.

Oprah Winfrey's first talk show was a local one in Baltimore called People Are Talking. She hosted it along with journalist Richard Sher.

Her own talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, first went on the air on September 8, 1986. The topic for the premiere show was "How to Marry the Man or Woman of Your Choice".


Winfrey used the show as an educational platform, featuring book clubs, interviews, self-improvement segments, and philanthropic forays into world events.. It was the highest-rated television program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011.

The most watched interview in television broadcast history is Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Michael Jackson from February, 1993—90 million people tuned in.

Winfrey is also a best-selling author. Her books include 1998's Make the Connection: Ten Steps to a Better Body and a Better Life co-authored with her personal trainer Bob Greene.

She became the world's first female black billionaire and the richest self-made American woman.

Winfrey celebrating her fiftieth birthday by Alan Light

Oprah Winfrey is the only African-American among the 400 richest people in the United States.

Winfrey and her longtime partner Stedman Graham have been together since 1986. They were engaged to be married in November 1992, but the ceremony never took place. Graham is the author of several self-help and business-related books.

Oprah Winfrey is chiclephobic, she is scared of chewing gum.

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