How does a poor, African-American girl from Mississippi, dressed in overalls made from potato sacks, become the most powerful celebrity in the world and a billionaire to boot?
Oprah Winfrey, who was born Orpah in 1954 (a biblical name that was mispronounced ‘Oprah’), suffered a sad childhood blighted by extreme poverty, sexual abuse and a stillbirth aged 14. She somehow survived, empathy intact, to become host of America’s favourite talk show, as well as succeeding as an actress, producer, publisher and charity worker.
Here was a rare thing: a talk-show host who could genuinely relate to human problems because she, too, had endured and overcome them
Via stints on radio and a Nashville television station, Winfrey’s chatty charms brought her to Chicago in 1984 to host WSL-TV’s ailing talk show AM Chicago. Within months of her arrival the show had rocketed to top position in the Chicago ratings, and soon became The Oprah Winfrey Show in an expanded hour-long format.
Going national in 1986, the programme rapidly became a forum for Winfrey to tackle issues close to her heart. Here was a rare thing: a talk-show host who could genuinely relate to human problems like fluctuating weight, drug addiction and miscarriage because she, too, had endured them – and overcome them. Winfrey has that rare appeal to the everyman (and, even more so, to the everywoman).
In 2000 Winfrey founded O, The Oprah Magazine, which has become one of America’s leading women’s monthlies, and has also set up film company Harpo Productions. Winfrey made her name as an actress in Spielberg’s The Colour Purple in 1985 and 13 years later starred in the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Beloved by Toni Morrison.
Her online book club has become the largest in the world with 700,000 members, and the presenter-cum-producer-cum-actor-cum-publisher still finds time to do plenty of charity work, including for the Angel Network, which has raised more than $35m for non-profit organisations around the world.
Her achievements are staggering, especially given the impediments of a poor background and being a black female in a white male-dominated world. Her talk show has the highest ratings in US television history and Winfrey was Forbes African American of the 20th century, the world’s only black female billionaire for three years running and the greatest black philanthropist in history, according to BusinessWeek.
