Whether Harry and Meghan, Adele or Kim Kardashian: When stars in the USA want to say something, they go to Oprah Winfrey. Now the presenter, actress and producer is 70 years old.
If it’s really important, then stars, athletes and politicians in the USA go to Oprah Winfrey’s TV sofa: whether Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan after they left Great Britain, Barack Obama on the way to the White House or a professional cyclist Lance Armstrong after doping allegations emerged against him. With her sensitive, gentle and patient nature, Winfrey allows her to express herself in detail and openly, even on unpleasant topics – and in doing so attracts millions of viewers to their screens. The presenter, who turns 70 on Monday (January 29), is almost like a kind of mother of the nation.
She just doesn’t want to become president herself, Winfrey has made that clear again and again – even if many of her fans longingly want that. Winfrey has always actively supported her favorites – such as Obama or the Democrat Stacey Abrams – in recent years, but has always ruled out running for office herself.
Winfrey, who also works as an actress and producer and has her own television channel, OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network), is one of the most influential women in the USA and beyond. Forbes magazine attributes her fortune to 2.8 billion dollars (around 2.6 billion euros). Her network of friends includes dozens of influential and famous people.
Poverty and violence
Winfrey was born to an underage mother in 1954 in the US state of Mississippi, grew up in poverty, said she was raped at the age of nine, was pregnant at 14 and lost her son soon after birth. But Winfrey didn’t give up, moved to Tennessee and got a job in radio while still in high school. After school she became a news anchor for a local TV station.
Winfrey’s strength right from the start was sensitive interviews, which is why she was transferred from the job as a news anchor to a talk studio. She later got her own “Oprah Winfrey Show,” which would become the most successful talk show in US television history. When the show ended in 2011 after 25 years as host, countless fans mourned her. Even afterwards, she remained a kind of voice of the American conscience.
Winfrey is a leading voice, especially for black people in the USA. She sees her success as “compensation” for all those who had to suffer more than she did in the long fight for equality in the USA. Most recently, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington unveiled a portrait of Winfrey in a purple robe painted by artist Shawn Michael Warren. “Here I am on the verge of my 70th birthday and have a portrait of myself in the National Portrait Gallery alongside all the greats: Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Ida B. Wells, Michelle and Barack Obama, Lean Horne, John F. Kennedy, Oprah Winfrey.”
What is important
Award-winning Winfrey, who has been dating author Stedman Graham for a long time, now has the privilege of only being able to focus on the things that really matter to her. She has just produced a new edition of the film “The Color Purple”, for which she received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress in 1986.
Winfrey, noticeably slimmer, made headlines on the red carpets. “It’s not one thing, it’s everything,” she said in response to questions about her weight-loss recipe. “I want to keep it that way.”
Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
