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What is Oprah's backstory?
Winfrey was born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a single teenage mother and later raised in inner-city Milwaukee. She has stated that she was molested during her childhood and early teenage years and became pregnant at 14; her son was born prematurely and died in infancy.
What happened in Oprah's life?
Oprah faced trauma, pain, and a teenage pregnancy As she has recalled, at just nine years old, Oprah was raped by her 19-year-old cousin. As time went on, a family friend and an uncle would also abuse the vulnerable young girl (via New York Post).
What are 3 interesting facts about Oprah Winfrey?
Interesting Facts about Oprah WinfreyOprah was crowned Miss Black Tennessee in 1972. ... She started her own production company called Harpo Productions. ... Oprah is also famous for her weight loss and weight gain. ... As of 2013, her estimated net worth was $2.8 billion.The Oprah Winfrey Show aired for 25 years.More items...
How did Oprah get her start?
Winfrey, who was born in rural Mississippi to a poor unwed teenage mother on January 29, 1954, began her TV career as a local news anchor in Nashville and Baltimore before moving to Chicago in 1984 to host a low-rated morning talk program.
How did Oprah get so rich?
She became the richest woman in entertainment. In 1996, she launched her famous book club and The Angel Network (her charity) in 1998. In 1998, she co-founded Oxygen Media, a programming company geared to women. She also began creating her magazine, "O, The Oprah Magazine," that launched in 2000.
What happened to Oprah's baby?
After being sexually abused, Oprah had carried the resulting pregnancy to term. Then, only two weeks after the birth, her baby had passed away.
Is Oprah the first black billionaire?
Oprah Winfrey is the first black female billionaire. Media personality Oprah Winfrey became the first black female billionaire with a net worth of $1 billion in 2003, according to Forbes. Her current net worth is estimated at about $2.9 billion.
What is a famous quote from Oprah Winfrey?
Oprah Quotes. “When you undervalue what you do, the world will undervalue who you are.” “Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.” “Turn your wounds into wisdom.”
What was the most important thing about Oprah Winfrey?
She was instrumental in launching Oxygen Media, dedicated to producing cable programming specifically for women. Oprah Winfrey is the first black woman billionaire and the richest African-American woman. She is also referred to by many as the most influential woman in the world.
Did Oprah have a child at 14?
Oprah Winfrey has confirmed a report that, as a teen-ager, she gave birth to a premature baby. "It is true that when I was 14 years old, I became pregnant," Winfrey says in Sunday's Parade magazine. "The baby was born prematurely and died shortly after birth.
Is Oprah the richest woman in the world?
French L'Oréal heiress Françoise Bettencourt Meyers is the richest woman in the world, according to Forbes.
How old was Oprah when she became a billionaire?
age 49Winfrey's media empire made her a billionaire in 2003 at age 49, but she began life at the other extreme. Born in rural Mississippi to an unmarried teen mother, she grew up in poverty and endured years of sexual abuse.
Where is Oprah Winfrey from?
Born: January 29, 1954. Kosciusko, Mississippi. African American television host and actress. America's first lady of talk shows, Oprah Winfrey is well known for surpassing her competition to become the most watched daytime show host on television. Her natural style with guests and audiences on the Oprah Winfrey Show earned her widespread ...
What did Oprah Winfrey say about her father?
A turning point. Winfrey said her father saved her life. He was very strict and provided her with guidance, structure, rules, and books. He required his daughter to complete weekly book reports, and she went without dinner until she learned five new vocabulary words each day.
How many cities did Oprah Winfrey air?
The popularity of Winfrey's show skyrocketed after the success of The Color Purple, and in September 1985 the distributor King World bought the syndication rights (the rights to distribute a television program) to air the program in one hundred thirty-eight cities, a record for first-time syndication. That year, although Donahue was being aired on two hundred stations, Winfrey won her time slot by 31 percent, drew twice the Chicago audience as Donahue, and carried the top ten markets in the United States.
How old was Winfrey when she was sent to Nashville?
She was promoted to third grade after that year. At six years old Winfrey was sent north to join her mother and two half-brothers in a Milwaukee ghetto, an extremely poor and dangerous neighborhood. At twelve years old she was sent to live with her father in Nashville, Tennessee.
What are some of the charities that Oprah Winfrey has made?
Although one of the wealthiest women in America and the highest paid entertainer in the world, Winfrey has made generous contributions to charitable organizations and institutions such as Morehouse College, the Harold Washington Library, the United Negro College Fund, and Tennessee State University.
When did Oprah Winfrey cut back her book club?
But after a six-year run with her book club, Winfrey decided to cut back in the spring of 2002 and no longer have the book club as a monthly feature.
When did Oprah move to New York?
In September 1985 the program, renamed the Oprah Winfrey Show, was expanded to one hour. As a result, Donahue moved to New York City. In 1985 Quincy Jones (1933–) saw Winfrey on television and thought she would make a fine actress in a movie he was coproducing with director Steven Spielberg (1946–).
Where was Oprah Winfrey born?
Winfrey was born in the rural town of Kosciusko, Mississippi, on January 29, 1954. After a troubled adolescence in a small farming community, where she was sexually abused by a number of male relatives and friends of her mother, Vernita, Winfrey moved to Nashville to live with her father, Vernon, a barber and businessman.
Who is Oprah Winfrey's sister?
In the final season of her talk show, Winfrey made ratings soar when she revealed a family secret: she has a half-sister named Patricia. Winfrey's mother, Vernita Lee, gave birth to a baby girl in 1963. At the time, Winfrey was 9 years old, and living with her father.
What company did Oprah Winfrey own?
She soon gained ownership of the program from ABC, drawing it under the control of her new production company, Harpo Productions ('Oprah' spelled backwards) and making more and more money from syndication. In 1994, with talk shows becoming increasingly trashy and exploitative, Winfrey pledged to keep her show free of tabloid topics.
What TV series did Oprah Winfrey play with Harpo?
Projects with Harpo have included the highly-rated 1989 TV miniseries, The Women of Brewster Place, in which Winfrey also starred. In 2004, Winfrey signed a new contract to continue The Oprah Winfrey Show through the 2010-11 season.
How many seasons did Oprah Winfrey have?
She’s best known for being the host of her own, wildly popular program, The Oprah Winfrey Show, which aired for 25 seasons, from 1986 to 2011. In 2011, Winfrey launched her own TV network, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).
How long did Oprah Winfrey host her own show?
Billionaire media executive and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey is best known for hosting her own internationally popular talk show from 1986 to 2011. From there she launched her own television network, OWN.
What is Oprah's book club?
The program propelled many unknown authors to the top of the bestseller lists and gave pleasure reading a new kind of popular prominence. Winfrey has continued her book club.
Who is Oprah Winfrey's father?
However, Mississippi farmer and World War II Veteran Noah Robinson Sr. (born c. 1925) has claimed to be her biological father.
What did Oprah Winfrey receive?
In 2013, Winfrey was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama and received honorary doctorate degrees from Duke and Harvard. In 2008, she formed her own network, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).
How many viewers did Oprah Winfrey have in the 90s?
The viewership for The Oprah Winfrey Show was highest during the 1991–92 season, when about 13.1 million U.S. viewers were watching each day. By 2003, ratings declined to 7.4 million daily viewers. Ratings briefly rebounded to approximately 9 million in 2005 and then declined again to around 7.3 million viewers in 2008, though it remained the highest rated talk show.
What radio station does Oprah Winfrey work for?
Mehmet Oz, Bob Greene, Dr. Robin Smith, and Marianne Williamson. Oprah & Friends began broadcasting at 11:00 am ET, September 25, 2006, from a new studio at Winfrey's Chicago headquarters. The channel broadcasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week on XM Radio Channel 156. Winfrey's contract requires her to be on the air 30 minutes a week, 39 weeks a year.
How did Oprah Winfrey become rich?
Born in rural poverty, and raised by a mother dependent on government welfare payments in a poor urban neighborhood, Winfrey became a millionaire at the age of 32 when her talk show received national syndication. Winfrey negotiated ownership rights to the television program and started her own production company. At the age of 41, Winfrey had a net worth of $340 million and replaced Bill Cosby as the only African American on the Forbes 400. By 2000, with a net worth of $800 million, Winfrey is believed to have been the richest African American of the 20th century. There has been a course taught at the University of Illinois focusing on Winfrey's business acumen, namely: "History 298: Oprah Winfrey, the Tycoon". Winfrey was the highest paid television entertainer in the United States in 2006, earning an estimated $260 million during the year, five times the sum earned by second-place music executive Simon Cowell. By 2008, her yearly income had increased to $275 million.
What year did Oprah Winfrey interview Michael Jackson?
The episode was hailed by some as the "television event of the decade" and helped Letterman attract his largest audience in more than 11 years: 13.45 million viewers. Although a much-rumored feud was said to have been the cause of the rift, both Winfrey and Letterman balked at such talk. "I want you to know, it's really over, whatever you thought was happening,” said Winfrey. On September 10, 2007, Letterman made his first appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, as its season premiere was filmed in New York City.
Why did Oprah create Oprah?
Winfrey's company created the Oprah.com website to provide resources and interactive content related to her shows, magazines, book club, and public charity. Oprah.com averages more than 70 million page views and more than six million users per month, and receives approximately 20,000 e-mails each week.
When did Oprah Winfrey start her own show?
The Oprah Winfrey Show. In the early 80s she met Stedman Graham, with whom he has a relationship until now. In September 1985, The Oprah Winfrey Show began airing nationally.
What was Oprah Winfrey's intention in 1994?
In 1994 most of the interview programs intended to explore vulgar and sensationalist subjects. However, Oprah Winfrey decided not to follow the example of her competition. Although this decision had a negative effect on their audience level.
What was Otto Lagerfeld's father's name?
Born into a upper-middle-class family, Lagerfeld studied at a private school in his hometown. During this period of training, he was noted for his intelligence and scathing personality, which was influenced by the character of his mother Elisabeth Bahlmann a cultured violinist daughter of the German politician, Karl Bahlmann; his father, Otto Lagerfeld was a renowned businessman, a descendant of a family of bankers, who earned his fortune by introducing evaporated milk in Germany.
How old was Oprah when she was raped?
At the age of 9 , she was raped by one of her cousins. The cousin started the series of sexual abuse that Winfrey suffered for the next five years perpetrated by three other men who were “friends” of the family. In her adolescence, her rebellion (stealing and ignoring the law) was about to take her to a reformatory.
How many seasons did Oprah Winfrey have?
Best known for her work as hostess of her own television show: The Oprah Winfrey Show. The Oprah show was on the air for twenty-five seasons from 1986 to 2001. Oprah Gail Winfrey was born on January 29, 1954 in Kosciusko, a rural town in Mississippi. Her mother was only 18 at the time she gave birth.
Why did Oprah's mother give up for adoption?
Winfrey explained that when she was nine years old, her mother became pregnant again but because she felt she could not support two girls financially, she was given up for adoption. In 2003, she became the first African-American woman to appear in the list of billionaires published by Forbes magazine.
When did the first African American woman appear on a Nashville newscast?
In 1973, when she was 19, she became the first African-American woman to appear on a Nashville newscast because she landed a job as a broadcaster for a local television network. In 1976 she moved to Baltimore, Maryland and worked as a television presenter for the People Are Talking program.
How old was Oprah Winfrey when she became a news anchor?
At age 19 Winfrey became a news anchor for the local CBS television station. Following her graduation from Tennessee State University in 1976, she was made a reporter and coanchor for the ABC news affiliate in Baltimore, Maryland.
Who is Oprah Winfrey's CEO?
Oprah Winfrey and David Zaslav, president and CEO of Discovery Communications, announcing the creation of the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). PRNewsFoto/Discovery Communications, George Burns/AP Images.
What award did Oprah Winfrey win?
In 2010 Oprah Winfrey was named a Kennedy Center honoree. In 2013 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She won the Cecil B. DeMille Award (a Golden Globe for lifetime achievement) in 2018. In addition, she won numerous Emmy Awards for The Oprah Winfrey Show and other television work.
When did Oprah's show end?
She brokered a partnership with Discovery Communications in 2008, through which the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) replaced the Discovery Health Channel in January 2011. In 2009 Winfrey announced that her television talk show would end in 2011; it was speculated that she would focus on OWN.
When did Oprah Winfrey start Oxygen?
In 1998 Winfrey expanded her media entertainment empire when she cofounded Oxygen Media, which launched a cable television network for women. In 2006 the Oprah & Friends channel debuted on satellite radio.
When did Oprah magazine close?
Winfrey further expanded her presence in the publishing industry with the highly successful launch of O, the Oprah Magazine in 2000 and O at Home in 2004. The latter folded in 2008, and O, the Oprah Magazine ceased its print publication in 2020 and was rebranded the following year.
When did Oprah Winfrey move to Chicago?
Winfrey excelled in the casual and personal talk-show format, and in 1984 she moved to Chicago to host the faltering talk show AM Chicago. Winfrey’s honest and engaging personality quickly ...
How old was Oprah when she went to live with her father?
From the age of 14 , she went to live with her father. Oprah says he was strict, but she was in the mood to be disobedient during her teenage years. After working her way through college, she became interested in journalism and media and got her first job as a news anchor for a local TV station.
What religion did Oprah Winfrey grow up in?
Oprah Winfrey was brought up in the Baptist church and after being baptized aged 8 she became evangelical about the religion. However, as she grew up she accepted a wider definition of spirituality – a spirituality which embraces the truth in all religions and different spiritual paths.
What movie did Oprah Winfrey play in?
Oprah Winfrey was also nominated for an Oscar in the film – A Color Purple. Produced by Steven Spielberg, the epic Color Purple told of segregation in America’s deep south. Oprah was widely admired for her role as Sofia.
What is Oprah's book club?
Book Club. The Oprah Winfrey book club has become the most influential book clubs in the world. A recommendation from Oprah Winfrey frequently sends books to the top of the best-seller lists. Many commentators agree that Oprah Winfrey exerts enormous influence.
What is Oprah Winfrey's role model?
She has been an important role model for black American women, breaking down many invisible barriers. “The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams.”. Oprah Winfrey was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi.
Where was Oprah born?
Oprah Winfrey was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Her parents were unmarried and separated soon after conception. Oprah had a difficult childhood. She lived in great poverty and often had to dress in potato sacks for which she was mocked at school. She was also sexually abused at an early age.
Did Oprah Winfrey have a chat show?
Her emotional style did not go down well for a news programme, so she was transferred to an ailing daytime chat programme. After Oprah had taken over, the daily chat show took off, and this later led to her own programme – The Oprah Winfrey Show.
The Oprah Winfrey Show
Her chat program ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show,’ which aired from Chicago, was her best-known work. It was one of the highest-rated television shows of its kind, and it aired for 25 years on a national broadcast from 1986 to 2011. She is also known for her dubbing skills since she was dubbed “Queen of All Media”.
Winfrey Childhood
Oprah Gail Winfrey was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi, on January 29, 1954, to an unmarried single mother. At the time of her birth, her name was Orpah (a biblical figure from the Book of Ruth), but owing to people’s mispronunciation, it became Oprah.
Family and Marriage
Because of her profession as a maid, Winfrey’s single mother, Vernita Lee, was less positive and loving. According to Oprah, she was not adequately mothered, which made her fearful of being a mother. She had a grandma called Hattie Mae Lee, who looked after her when she was a child. Patricia and Jeffery were her half-siblings.
Oprah Winfrey Story: Abuse and Trauma
Oprah went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with her mother and half-sister Patricia when she was six years old. When the family’s finances became strained, and it became impossible to handle two kids, Lee sent Oprah to her father Vernon’s house in Nashville, Tennessee. Her uncle, cousin, and a family acquaintance abused her when she was nine years old.
Oprah Winfrey: Achievements
Winfrey was called “arguably the world’s most powerful woman” by CNN and Time.com
Oprah Winfrey: Books Written
With a total of 20 books written by Oprah, here are some exceptional and must-read books by her:
Early Life and Education
Early Broadcasting Career
- In 1976, Winfrey moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where she hosted the TV chat show People Are Talking. The show became a hit and Winfrey stayed with it for eight years, after which she was recruited by a Chicago TV station to host her own morning show, A.M. Chicago. Her major competitor in the time slot was Phil Donahue. Within several months, Winfrey's open, warm-hearted personal style had won her 100,000 more viewers than Donahue and had …
'The Oprah Winfrey Show'
- Winfrey launched The Oprah Winfrey Showin 1986 as a nationally syndicated program that ran for 25 years, until 2011. With its placement on 120 channels and an audience of 10 million people, the show grossed $125 million by the end of its first year, of which Winfrey received $30 million. She soon gained ownership of the program from ABC, drawing it under the control of her new production company, Harpo Productions ('Oprah' spelled backwards…
Half-Sister
- In the final season of her talk show, Winfrey made ratings soar when she revealed a family secret: she has a half-sister named Patricia. Winfrey's mother, Vernita Lee, gave birth to a baby girl in 1963. At the time, Winfrey was 9 years old, and living with her father. Lee put the child up for adoption because she believed that she wouldn't be able to get off public assistance if she had another child to care for. Patricia lived in a series of foster homes unt…
Weight Loss
- Winfrey has publicly struggled with her weight, and her numerous weight loss efforts have been well-documented. In 1988, she revealed on her talk show that she lost 67 pounds on a liquid diet and exercise. "I had literally starved myself for four months - not a morsel of food," she later said. By 1992, she had gained most of the weight back. In 1995, she lost an estimated 90 pounds (dropping to her ideal weight of around 150 pounds). That year, she com…
Oxygen Media and 'O Magazine'
- In 1999 Winfrey debuted Oxygen Media, a company she co-founded that’s dedicated to producing cable and Internet programming for women. In doing so, Winfrey ensured her spot in the forefront of the media industry as one of the most powerful and wealthy people in show business. In 2002, she concluded a deal with the network to air a prime-time complement to her syndicated talk show. Winfrey’s highly successful monthly magazine, publish…
Oprah Winfrey Network
- Soon after The Oprah Winfrey Showended in 2011, Winfrey moved to her own network, the Oprah Winfrey Network, a joint venture with Discovery Communications. Despite a financially rocky start, the network made headlines in January 2013, when it aired an interview between Winfrey and Lance Armstrong, the American cyclist and seven-time Tour de France winner who was stripped of his Tour titles in 2012 due to doping charges. During the intervi…
Partnership with Apple
- In June 2018, Winfrey agreed to a multi-year deal in which she would create original content for Apple. In September 2019, it was announced that Winfrey was bringing Oprah's Book Club to the Apple TV+ streaming subscription service, with Ta-Nehisi Coates' The Water Dancerto be featured on the inaugural November 1 episode. As part of her partnership with Apple, Winfrey signed on as executive producer of On the Record, a doc…
Wealth, Charity and Awards
- According to Forbes magazine, Winfrey was the richest African American of the 20th century and the world's only Black billionaire for three years running. Lifemagazine hailed her as the most influential woman of her generation. In September 2002, Winfrey was named the first recipient of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' Bob Hope Humanitarian Award. In 2005, Business Weeknamed Winfrey the greatest Black philanthropist in American histo…
Political Activism
- Campaigning for Barack Obama
Winfrey campaigned for Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obamain December 2007, attracting the largest crowds of the primary season to that point. Winfrey joined Obama for a series of rallies in the early primary/caucus states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. It was the first time Winfrey had ever camp… - Campaigning for Stacey Abrams
In November 2018, Winfrey campaigned withGeorgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, the first Black female nominee for a major party to run for governor in any state. Winfrey knocked on doors and even participated in a town-hall meeting with the Democratic candidate. In the end, Abrams narrowly lost her election bid to Repub…
Overview
Oprah Gail Winfrey is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, broadcast from Chicago, which was the highest-rated television program of its kind in history and ran in national syndication for 25 years, from 1986 to 2011. Dubbed the "Queen of All Media", she was the richest African-American of the 20th century, was once the world's only black billionaire, and th…
Influence
Winfrey was called "arguably the world's most powerful woman" by CNN and TIME, "arguably the most influential woman in the world" by The American Spectator, "one of the 100 people who most influenced the 20th Century" and "one of the most influential people" from 2004 to 2011 by TIME. Winfrey is the only person to have appeared in the latter list on ten occasions.
At the end of the 20th century, Life listed Winfrey as both the most influential woman and the m…
Early life
Orpah Gail Winfrey was born on January 29, 1954; her first name was spelled Orpah on her birth certificate after the biblical figure in the Book of Ruth, but people mispronounced it regularly and "Oprah" stuck. She was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi, to an unmarried teenage mother. Her mother, Vernita Lee (1935–2018), was a housemaid. Winfrey's biological father is usually noted as Vernon Winfrey (born c. 1933), a coal miner turned barber turned city councilman who was in the Armed Forces when she was born. However, Mississippi farmer and World War II Vet…
Television
Working in local media, Winfrey was both the youngest news anchor and the first black female news anchor at Nashville's WLAC-TV (now WTVF-TV), where she often covered the same stories as John Tesh, who worked at a competing Nashville station. In 1976, she moved to Baltimore's WJZ-TV to co-anchor the six o'clock news. In 1977, she was removed as co-anchor and worked in lower profile positions at the station. She was then recruited to join Richard Sher as co-host o…
Other media
Winfrey co-starred in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple (1985), as distraught housewife Sofia. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. The Alice Walker novel later became a Broadway musical which opened in late 2005, with Winfrey credited as a producer. In October 1998, Winfrey produced and starred in the film Beloved, based on Toni Morrison's Pulitzer Prize–winning novel of the same name. To prepare for her role as Sethe, the protagonist and former slave, Winfrey experienced a 24-hour simulation of t…
Personal life
Winfrey currently lives on "The Promised Land", her 42-acre (17-ha) estate with ocean and mountain views in Montecito, California. Winfrey also owns a house in Lavallette, New Jersey; an apartment in Chicago; an estate on Fisher Island, Florida; a ski house in Telluride, Colorado; and properties on Maui, Hawaii; Antigua; and Orcas Island, Washington State.
Winfrey's high school sweetheart Anthony Otey recalled an innocent courtship that began in Wi…
Filmography
• 1989 – The Oprah Winfrey Show (supervising producer – 8 episodes, 1989–2011)
• 1989 – The Women of Brewster Place (TV miniseries) (executive producer)
• 1992 – Nine (TV documentary) (executive producer)
• 1992 – Overexposed (TV movie) (executive producer)
Bibliography
By Oprah Winfrey
• Winfrey, Oprah (1996). The Uncommon Wisdom of Oprah Winfrey: A Portrait in Her Own Words
• Winfrey, Oprah (1998). Journey to Beloved (Photography by Ken Regan)
• Winfrey, Oprah (1998). Make the Connection: Ten Steps to a Better Body and a Better Life (co-authored with Bob Greene)