Oprah Winfrey is an American billionaire, media executive, actress, talk show host, television producer, 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[and North America's first black multi-billionaire, and she has been ranked the greatest black philanthropist in American history. By 2007, she was sometimes ranked as the most influential woman in the world. Forbes' list of The World's Billionaires has listed Winfrey as the world's only black billionaire from 2004 to 2006 and as the first black woman billionaire in the world that was achieved in 2003. As of 2014, Winfrey had a net worth above 2.9 billion dollars and had overtaken former eBay CEO Meg Whitman as the richest self-made woman in America. Chairwoman and CEO of Harpo Productions (1986–present) Chairwoman, CEO, and CCO of the Oprah Winfrey Network (2011–present)
Oprah Winfrey bests Known For her widely popular show, The Oprah Winfrey Show that ran nationally for almost 25 years (1986-2011).
Oprah Winfrey was born as Oprah Gail Winfrey in Kosciusko, Mississippi, the US to an unmarried teenage mother, Vernita Lee (1935–2018), who 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 had been in the Armed Forces when she was born. However, Mississippi farmer and World War II veteran Noah Robinson Sr. (born c. 1925) has claimed to be her biological father. Her nationality is American and belongs to African, Native American and East Asian ethnicity. Her religion is Christianity and her zodiac is Aquarius. Winfrey has three siblings, a younger half-sister, Patricia(who died in February 2003, at age 43 due to causes related to cocaine addiction), a second half-sister, Patricia and a younger, half-brother, Jeffrey, who died of AIDS-related causes in 1989.
Winfrey was raised in inner-city Milwaukee in poverty. Her family was so poor that Winfrey often wore dresses made of potato sacks, for which the local children made fun of her. To make it worse, she was molested during her childhood and early teens by her cousin, uncle, and a family friend, starting when she was nine years old. She became pregnant at 14; her son was born prematurely and died in infancy. Winfrey was then sent to live with the man she calls her father, Vernon Winfrey, a barber in Tennessee. She began attending Lincoln High School in Milwaukee, but after early success in the Upward Bound program, was transferred to the affluent suburban Nicolet High School. She won an oratory contest, which secured her a full scholarship to Tennessee State University, a historically black institution, where she studied communication.
The famous American media executive, Oprah Winfrey is a billionaire who has a jaw-dropping net worth of 2.7 billion dollars. Her major source of income is her investment on various radio and TV networks. She is a media executive whose titles include, Chairwoman and CEO of Harpo Productions (1986–present) and Chairwoman, CEO and CCO of the Oprah Winfrey Network (2011–present). Winfrey became a millionaire at the age of 32 when her talk show "The Oprah Winfrey Show" received national syndication. Winfrey started her own production company thereafter. At the age of 41, Winfrey had a net worth of $340 million.
By 2000, with a net worth of $800 million, Winfrey was the highest-paid television entertainer in the United States in 2006, earning an estimated $260 million during the year. By 2008, her yearly income had increased to $275 million. As of 2014, Winfrey had a net worth over 2.9 billion dollars and had overtaken former eBay CEO Meg Whitman as the richest self-made woman in America. Winfrey currently lives on "The Promised Land", a multimillion worth 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 in Washington State. Also, she earns as an occasional actress, author, and producer. Her car collection is still under review.
Her pathway to billionaire started from her first job as a teenager working at a local grocery store in Tennessee. At the age of 17, Winfrey won the Miss Black Tennessee beauty pageant which attracted the attention of the local black radio station, WVOL, which hired her to do the news part-time. By 19, she was a co-anchor for the local evening news in 1977. Winfrey's often emotional, extemporaneous delivery led to her transfer to the daytime talk show arena, and after boosting a third-rated local Chicago talk show to first place in 1983, she launched her own production company in a deal with King World in 1986 and her production show "The Oprah Winfrey Show" became internationally syndicated. In 1994, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. On February 9, 2006, it was announced that Winfrey had signed a three-year, $55-million contract with XM Satellite Radio to establish a new radio channel.
The channel, Oprah Radio. In addition to her talk show, Winfrey also produced and co-starred in the 1989 drama miniseries The Women of Brewster Place and a short-lived spin-off, Brewster Place. As well as hosting and appearing on television shows, Winfrey co-founded the women's cable television network Oxygen which was the initial network for her Oprah After the Show program from 2002 to 2006 before moving to Oprah.com when Winfrey sold her stake in the network. She is also the president of Harpo Productions (Oprah spelled backward). She also moderated three ABC Afterschool Specials from 1992 to 1994. On January 15, 2008, Winfrey and Discovery Communications announced plans to change the Discovery Health Channel into a new channel called OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. It was launched on January 1, 2011. Starting September 2017, Winfrey joined CBS 60 Minutes Sunday evening news magazine program as a special contributor on the starting in September. Winfrey left 60 Minutes by the end of 2018.
In June 2018, Apple announced a multi-year content partnership with Winfrey, in which it was agreed that Winfrey would create new original programs exclusively for Apple's streaming service, Apple TV+.In 2015, Winfrey purchased a minority stake in the publicly-traded company Weight Watchers for a reported $34 million. By 2020, the value of those shares had increased to as much as $430 million. She also is an investor in True Food Kitchen, a restaurant chain founded by author Andrew Weil. Winfrey had also emerged as a political force in the 2008 presidential race, delivering about one million votes to Barack Obama in the razor-close 2008 Democratic primary. In 2013, Winfrey was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama[25] and honorary doctorate degrees from Duke and Harvard. As an Author, Winfrey has co-authored five books, published the magazine: O, The Oprah Magazine and O At Home.
Oprah is still unmarried however she has been in multiple relationships so far. She first had teenage love with her high school boyfriend Anthony Otey starting in the second year but ended on Valentine’s day of senior year. In 1971, Winfrey met William "Bubba" Taylor at Tennessee State University with whom she had a deep connection but they had to break up after William moved from Nashville to Baltimore as he got a job at WJZ-TV.In the 1970s, Winfrey had a romantic relationship with John Tesh. Biographer Kitty Kelley claims that Tesh split with Winfrey over the pressure of having an interracial relationship. Winfrey turned to reporter Lloyd Kramer for comfort in the 70s but by the start of the 80s, she again was left alone as Lloyd moved to NBC in New York. Winfrey then went to depression and had smoked crack cocaine with an unnamed man with whom she was romantically involved with during the same era.
Winfrey was allegedly involved in a second drug-related love affair with Randolph Cook in 1985 and did drugs that got over in 1997. Also, in the mid-1980s, Winfrey briefly dated movie critic Roger Ebert, whom she credits with advising her to take her show into syndication. In 1985, Winfrey's shortly had affair with Haitian filmmaker Reginald Chevalier. Currently, Winfrey is engaged to her boyfriend Stedman Graham who were already engaged to be married in November 1992, but the ceremony never took place. They have been together since 1986.
The richest billionaire among the top 500, Oprah Winfrey is now 65 years old. She is however still a very healthy and bright lady. Regarding her body physics, She has a tall height of 5 ft 6inches tall and she weighs 77 kg (170 pounds). Her body measurements are Breast Size: 104 cm (41 in), Waist Size: 81 cm (32 in) and Hips: 102 cm (40 in). Similarly, her Shoe Size is 10.5 US (41 EU) and Dress Size 14 US (44 EU). The most influential woman of 2007 has Brown eyes color and dark black hair color. she has straight sexuality.