Oprah Winfrey has come a long way since being born poverty-stricken to a single teen mom
in Mississippi. As of 2021, the inspirational head of a media empire has amassed a reported
net worth of $2.7 billion. Here's a peek inside Oprah's insanely lavish life.
When you think "billionaire lifestyle," you normally don't think of a farm — and neither
did Oprah when she bought her home on Maui. She explained on her website,
"I knew it had been farmland in the past, but I didn't seriously imagine continuing
that tradition."
Considering that Hawaii is said to import roughly 90 percent of its food, Oprah decided
that it was in her best interest to start a garden for herself and her community — right
from the yard of her vacation home. She consulted with fitness expert Bob Greene who explained
that a majority of the food we eat lacks essential nutrients because of the use of pesticides.
So Oprah began to build her farm on the side of a dormant volcano, 4,000 feet above sea
level. Her property currently grows over 100 different kinds of fruit, veggies, and herbs.
Oh — and also truffles.
"Almost every meal I have, there's truffles, so everybody's gonna get shaved truffles over
their soup."
Even for all the extravagant homes that Oprah owns, she loves to spend time outside, enjoying
nature. So, naturally, when it came to designing her California home, she needed an equally
extravagant garden that she could enjoy at her pleasure.
"Welcome to one of my favorite places on earth. This is my garden."
According to Oprah.com, she hired celebrity designer and master rosarian, Dan Bifano,
to put it all together and coordinate the look of the garden with the interior of her
house. He then introduced Oprah to a variety of roses from which she could choose for her
garden, but then came up with a truly original idea. Along with a professional hybridizer,
the designer came up with a brand new, signature rose for the billionaire; the Legends tea
rose.
It took a total of five years to create one the largest hybrid roses ever made. But instead
of naming it after herself, Oprah honored the 18 African American women whom she most
admires. In 2008, the red and black Legends rose was released everywhere so just about
anyone can have a garden like Oprah's…Well, maybe not exactly like Oprah's.
In 2013, Oprah decided it was time to downsize her earthly possessions. She said on her website
at the time,
"I knew my house was impressive. I mean, just about every guest I ever invited for dinner
told me so as they perched on the edge of the opulent sofa trying not to get fingerprints
on anything."
Apparently, she wanted her home to feel more cozy and less showy. Still, "downsizing" clearly
means something completely different to a billionaire like Oprah than it does to the
rest of us. Her cast-off possessions amounted to enough to fill three large tents. She auctioned
off items that ranged from furniture and antique dolls, to wall-sized magazine covers of herself
and electric scooters. She told CBS,
“It is my idea of a yard sale."
Her so-called yard sale reportedly ended up raking in over $600,000, with all of the money
going directly to The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa.
Like practically any other billionaire in the world, Oprah has a private chef on staff.
But culinary professionals aren't on hand for the host every single day. So, according
to her Facebook, she sometimes indulges herself in a craving for a specific restaurant — even
if it's on the other side of the country. As fans know, one of her "Favorite Things"
happens to be crab cakes. And one day, for lunch, Oprah told Harper's Bazaar,
"[Stedman and I] had fabulous crab cakes flown in from Pappas in Baltimore."
Lunch just so happens to be Oprah's favorite meal of the day, and she enjoys sharing it
with her famous friends. She added,
"If Stedman isn't here. I will invite others over — all the people I'm interested in
talking to or meeting. I had Jennifer Lawrence up for lunch, Chrissy Metz, Princess Ameerah
of Saudi Arabia."
In other words, just a casual day with friends, y'know? No big deal.
Oprah always looks glamorous and well put-together, but she freely admits that she doesn't do
it all by herself. According to the star, it takes an entire team to achieve her many
fabulous looks, and that team can sometimes be composed of literally dozens of people.
She once said on her show,
"I normally have, for a magazine cover, 28 people working to help me look good."
"We've been working on my face since twelve o'clock."
So what is this team of style experts actually doing? Depending on her needs that day, there's
someone to straighten her clothes, another to fetch the perfect shoes, a person to style
and touch-up her hair, and there's even someone to even out her collar.
But it's not just during a photo shoot that Oprah has a glam squad on the clock, helping
her look her best. High-end fashion designers sometimes stop by her living room for a private
trunk show before releasing the next season's designs to the public. Oprah told Harper's
Bazaar,
"Brunello Cucinelli came up from Los Angeles, and I chose everything that I wanted from
their spring line."
Oprah is as close to universally admired as a billionaire can be, so just about anyone
would likely want her to be the godmother to their child — or, in some cases, their
boat. In 2019, Oprah was officially appointed as the godmother of Holland America's Nieuw
Statendam. And yes, that's definitely a cruise ship.
"May God bless her and all who sail on her."
The tradition of becoming a godparent to a sea vessel actually dates back to ancient
times. It was a way of bringing safe passage to the ship and is considered an honor, according
to The Telegraph. Oprah is only the second person to be named godparent to one of Holland
America's cruise ships. The first was Desmond Tutu, former Archbishop of Cape Town, South
Africa.
Oprah's boat is 975 feet long and can carry over 2,500 guests, all of whom get to enjoy
daily meditation, a reading room, and some of Oprah's other "Favorite Things" as they
sail around the world.
When Oprah uttered the inspiring words "a new day is on the horizon" during a speech
at the 2018 Golden Globes, it had people everywhere wanting her to run for president in 2020.
"Uhhhh…hadn't thought about that question."
While the TV host was publicly reluctant to take the idea seriously, many were still ready
to throw money at her to coax her into doing it. She told People magazine,
"I had people — wealthy, billionaires — calling me up and saying, 'I can get you a billion
dollars. I can run your campaign.' That many people saying something made me think, 'Am
I at least supposed to look at the question?'"
Though a potential 2020 run has obviously come and gone, it still has us all wondering
if we'll be seeing Oprah on the ticket sometime in the future. Still, she told the outlet
that she prayed for a sign regarding whether or not she should do it, adding,
"[I said] 'God, if you think I’m supposed to run, you gotta tell me, and it has to be
so clear that not even I can miss it.' And I haven’t gotten that."
When she's not fielding questions about a potential upcoming presidential run, Oprah
loves indulging in a relaxing day at the spa. But her experience happens to be a little
bit different than the rest of ours. For an Oprah-worthy pampering treatment, she hops
aboard her private jet to spend the day at The Ananda spa in the Himalayas.
Perched atop the beautiful mountains of India, it's the country's very first luxury destination
spa. Between meditation and yoga classes, as well as more than 80 different wellness
and beauty treatments, it's the perfect place to spot some A-list clientele. Everyone from
Oprah to Brad Pitt, Uma Thurman, Ricky Martin and Heidi Klum has been seen there. On Oprah's
Lifeclass tour, she revealed that she had her first experience being trained by a yogi
at the famous spa. As she put it in a ringing endorsement,
"Ananda is a gift. And a blessing!"
If all of that opulence isn't enough to make your jaw drop at Oprah's truly luxurious lifestyle,
she's got a few more glamorous cards up her sleeve that just might tip the scales. There
was that time she commissioned a bathtub to be carved out of a single piece of onyx in
the literal shape of her body.
"I told you, bathing — I'm serious about it."
And then there is the quarter-million-dollar 1,600-bottle wine cellar she designed to perfectly
display and chill her vino. Of course, she also has her own private jet to travel to
her 163-acre estate on Maui. But if she's not feeling like dealing with the jet lag,
she can also just pop over to her $28.8 million horse ranch in Montecito, California, next
to neighbors like Ellen DeGeneres and Drew Barrymore.
But Oprah doesn't limit her investments to the humble aspirations of a real estate queen.
She has also amassed quite the fine art collection, as well…some of which has made her even
more rich. In 2017, she made headlines for selling a painting by Gustav Klimt for $150
million — making a cool $60 million profit. And when she isn't making waves in the art
scene, the Book Club mogul is often tucked in at one of her homes, reading a few pages
from her 1,500-book collection — some volumes of which are pricey, and very rare, first-edition
Pulitzer Prize-winners.
Even with all of this if it all just gets to be too much for the star, she can easily
retreat to the tranquil tea house that she constructed in the backyard of her Montecito
home. There, she's said to allow no devices, no work meetings, and, surprisingly, not even
a toilet. She once told designer Nate Berkus,
"You don't even want to be here in this small space and hear somebody else flushing the
toilet. You gotta pee, you gotta go outside."
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