Overcoming different forms of abuse, a macaroni shame spiral, and "Sack girl" as a childhood
nickname – Oprah Winfrey's life was and is still full of tragic details.
Oprah Winfery, mastermind behind her own media empire, has come a long way from a childhood
of absolute poverty.
Her teenage parents, Vernita Lee and Vernon Winfrey, were unmarried when she was born
on Jan. 29, 1954.
Her name was originally supposed to be Orpah, after a character in the Bible, but so many
people got her name wrong that "Oprah" finally just stuck.
Winfrey spent the first years of her life in the care of her grandmother, and their
financial situation was so bad that they had to resort to using clothing made from potato
sacks, which earned her the childhood nickname of "Sack Girl."
Among her earliest toys was a doll she made herself from a corn cob, and the young Winfrey's
earliest pets were a group of cockroaches.
In 2021, Oprah Winfrey co-wrote a book called "What Happened to You?"
with neuroscientist Dr. Bruce Perry.
She told People that the seeds of the book were planted with her own introspection, saying -
"I started thinking about what happened to me in my life to make me who I am."
Winfrey has spoken about witnessing the cycle of violence that surrounded her at a time
and in a place where hitting children was normal.
Winfrey was talking to Dr. Mehmet Oz when she shared a story about being told to fetch
a bucket of drinking water from a well.
Her grandmother caught her playing in it, grabbed a switch and gave her a whipping so
severe that when she put on her dress for church the following day, the wounds began
to bleed.
She also recounted how that violence wasn't random, telling a harrowing story about a
night that her grandfather tried to strangle her grandmother.
From that night onward, her grandmother blocked the door with a chair and set out tin cans
so they'd be alerted if he tried to come in.
"I always slept with, listening for the cans.
Listening for what happens if that doorknob moves."
The Huffington Post reported that after being left in the care of her grandmother for several
years, Oprah was ultimately shuffled off to her father in Tennessee.
She was then handed off again to her mother in Wisconsin.
By that time, the 6-year-old Winfrey was old
enough to know how lonely and scary it was, recalling -
"I suddenly land in a place that's completely foreign to me.
I don't know anybody.
I don't really even know my mother.
I walked into that space feeling completely alone and abandoned."
Winfrey's life wasn't all smooth sailing once she was in her mother's care, either.
Far from finding a warm embrace, she quickly learned that she wasn't even going to be allowed
to sleep in the house and explained why she was told to sleep on the porch, saying -
"My mother was boarding with this very light-skinned
black woman […] I could tell instantly [...] that
she didn't like me.
It was because of the color of my skin."
USA Today says that the first time Oprah Winfrey publicly spoke about the sexual assaults she
endured as a child was on her talk show.
It was Nov. 10, 1986, and since then, she has done hundreds of episodes dedicated to
the stories of other survivors.
Winfrey has continued to speak about it, saying that she knew just how traumatic an experience
it was, and how heavy a secret it was to carry.
By sharing her own story, she has said that she hopes it will encourage others to do the same.
She said that she was nine years old the first time it happened, and that her assailant was
her cousin, recalling during a speech at Ball State University in 2012 -
"He took me to an ice cream shop — blood still running down my leg — and bought me
ice cream."
It continued for years, and she was so young she says that she wasn't aware of what was
happening to her and told no one.
When she was 14, she ended up pregnant.
She was living with her mother at the time, and was ultimately sent to a detention home.
She didn't stay though - the facility didn't have enough room for her, and she was sent
to live with her father.
"I got sent to live with my father so that
my father could straighten me out - and that he did."
In 2017, Oprah Winfrey opened up to The Hollywood Reporter about how her teenage pregnancy as
the result of years of sexual assault had impacted her, recalling -
"I hit rock-bottom.
I became pregnant and hid the pregnancy.
I'd intended to kill myself, actually.
I thought there's no other way than killing myself.
I was just planning on how to do it."
It was during another interview that the New York Post says that she revealed that at the
time doctors told her she was pregnant, she wasn't even sure what that meant, or that
it was a possible outcome of all the times she had been raped by various relatives.
Winfrey credits her father for telling her what she needed to hear to get back on her
feet after she gave birth to a baby boy who passed away two weeks later.
She recalled his advice, saying -
"What you have done is the past, and you alone get to determine what your future will be."
"This is your opportunity to seize this moment and make something of your life."
The Florida Times-Union reported that in 2011 Oprah discovered that she had a half-sister
that her mother had put up for adoption almost five decades prior.
The sister, Patricia, had been searching for information about her birth family for years,
but had been told that her mother refused to meet her.
But, after seeing a story about Winfrey's mother, she connected the dots.
Winfrey announced on her show that she had
met her long-lost half-sister the previous Thanksgiving.
She noted that her newly discovered sister had been trying to get in touch with her since
2007, and lauded her for not trying to sell the story, or go to the press.
Winfrey hadn't always been that fortunate - in 1990, it was her other sister, also named
Patricia, who had sold the story of her teen pregnancy to the National Enquirer for $19,000.
Oprah wrote about the betrayal years later, writing in an issue of her magazine, O -
"I took to my bed and cried for three days.
I felt devastated.
Wounded.
Betrayed.
How could this person do this to me?"
Winfrey has since lamented the death of that sister, in spite of her attempts to get her
into rehab for her struggles with addiction.
According to the Los Angeles Times, another bombshell Oprah confession occurred in 1995
when she was interviewing four women who had first-hand experience with drugs.
Those women included a reporter for The Washington Post named Patrice Gaines, who commented that
in her experience, it was the influence of a male significant other that was most commonly
the deciding factor when it came time for women to start using.
Winfrey responded -
"This is so familiar it makes my head hurt.
This is probably one of the hardest things I have ever said.
I relate to your story so much.
I have done this drug — I know exactly what you are talking about."
She went on to say that at the time, she had been working as the anchor of a news show,
which the AP says dated the events of her confession to between 1973 and 1976.
Gaines said that afterwards, Winfrey had added a few thoughts: Not only did the drug use
weigh heavy on her, but also, the idea that she had done it because someone else had pressured
her to also weighed heavily on her mind.
Talking about the problems of others without addressing her own had made her feel hypocritical,
and confirmed that it was an unplanned, unrehearsed
moment: Oprah broke down afterwards, and stopped
recording to gather her composure.
There are some big names who got their start on Oprah Winfrey's show, including the wildly
controversial Dr. Oz.
Between 2004 and 2009, Dr. Mehmet Oz appeared on Winfrey's show somewhere between 60 and
90 times and credited the exposure with giving him the recognition he needed to launch his
own show.
Then, in 2022, he made the jump into politics with a run for a Pennsylvania Senate seat.
According to The Washington Post, that was problematic for reasons that included things
like his years of promoting so-called weight loss drugs that the FDA hotly disputed, and
making other claims with little scientific evidence to back them up.
Winfrey was caught in the middle, with many pointing their fingers at her for launching
Oz's career.
Winfrey has been consistently mum, finally giving a non-committal statement to New York
Magazine, saying -
"One of the great things about our democracy is that every citizen can decide to run for
public office.
Mehmet Oz has made that decision.
And now it's up to the residents of Pennsylvania to decide who will represent them."
Despite playing it safe with her answer, Oprah
eventually did endorse Oz's opponent, John Fetterman.
Oprah Winfrey has been on countless magazine covers lauding her for her weight loss, but
tabloids are just as quick to condemn a few extra pounds.
She's been candid about the impact that's had on her.
In an interview with Piers Morgan she talked about a time in 1998 when she was despondent
over the poor box office numbers of a movie she starred in, she went to her chef and requested
mac-and-cheese — and a lot of it.
"How much macaroni did you eat?"
"Oh, I ate about 30 pounds worth.
I'm not kidding."
It was the year after that happened that she interviewed author Gary Zukav about emotion-fueled
binge eating, and had a breakthrough of her own, saying -
"I thought I just wanted some macaroni.
I didn't connect the powerlessness until just this moment."
Winfrey has since shared her other realizations, too, saying that not only did she turn to
food when she felt helpless, but in 2017, she spoke with Good Housekeeping to say -
"[My weight] has been the go-to comfort for me.
You use it as your coat and your shield, and it keeps you from doing things.
You don't have to go to that party because you don't have a dress to wear and nothing
is going to fit you."
In 2007, a bizarre saga started to unfold around Oprah Winfrey.
According to Reuters in 2007 the public found out that Oprah was the victim of an attempted
extortion scheme following the arrest of Keifer Bonvillain.
Bonvillain claimed that he had recorded interviews with a former employee of hers, and that the
content of the confessions would not only ruin her reputation, but that he was ready
and waiting to publish a book with all of the salacious details if she didn't pay him
$1.5 million.
The FBI got involved in a sting operation and arrested Bonvillain when he showed up
to an arranged location thinking that he was going to be picking up the cash, and it wasn't
until the following year that RadarOnline reported that the charges had been dismissed
with a promise that Bonvillain would pay for costs of the FBI sting, perform 50 hours of
community service, and not have any other run-ins with the law.
Oprah's mother passed away on Thanksgiving Day of 2018, and she told People that she
was able to be at her side to say goodbye thanks to a call from her half-sister Patricia,
who knew that the sun was setting on their mother's days.
She talked about getting to sit with her, and talk about the end.
She said that she struggled with what to say, how to say goodbye, and eventually settled
on saying -
"'Thank you.
Thank you, because I know it's been hard for you.'"
Winfrey said goodbye to her father in 2022.
Before he passed, she was able to organize and share on Instagram a touching tribute
in the form of a backyard BBQ on what she
called a "Vernon Winfrey Appreciation Celebration."
In the post, she offered this bit of advice to her audience -
"Remember to celebrate each other."
If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse, please contact the Childhelp
National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child
(1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.