As a famous television queen with a fortune of up to 3.5 billion USD, Oprah Winfrey’s life is not always rosy.
Growing up in rural Mississippi, Oprah Winfrey once had to wear clothes made from potato sacks because her family was poor. She lived on her grandmother’s farm and was often beaten, while the unmarried teenage mother looked for work. “I grew up in an environment where children existed but were not listened to,” Winfrey confided.
The American television queen said that she was beaten by her grandmother just because she was playing with water. “I scooped water from the well and put it in a bucket, then put my hand in there to play with it. My grandmother saw me and beat me so hard that the welts on my back bled. I was wearing a dress and the blood on my back had seeped through my dress. My grandmother was very upset about that and I was beaten again,” she said.
Oprah Winfrey spoke at an event in New York, USA in April 2019. Photo: Reuters.
But Winfrey’s life after that was still miserable. In a speech at Ball University, Indiana in 2012, she shared that she was raped when she was 9 years old.
“The rapist took me to an ice cream shop and bought me ice cream, while blood was still running down my leg,” Winfrey recalled. This happened after she moved in with her mother to a motel in Milwaukee at age 6.
Miss Winfrey was abused from the age of 10 to 14, until she discovered she was pregnant. She was then taken to a prison by her mother. Winfrey escaped and moved to Nashville, Tennessee to live with her father.
Two weeks after birth, Winfrey’s baby died. This painful experience changed her life forever. She and her father saw this as an opportunity to rebuild their lives. “I really feel as though the baby has given me a chance at a new life,” she said.
Winfrey’s father directed and put her life in order. He asked her to read books and write reports about the books she read every week. “He was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to make the most of my life and wouldn’t accept anything that wasn’t best for me,” Winfrey said.
All the efforts of both of them paid off. Winfrey won a full scholarship to Tennessee State University. However, at the age of 19, she abandoned her studies to pursue a media career, joining a local television station as a reporter and presenter. This was the decision that created a turning point in this woman’s life.
Winfrey moved to Baltimore in 1976 to join WJZ-TV as an anchor. There, she became the co-host of the first talk show called People Are Talking. She also found her passion and went on to turn an unattractive morning show in Chicago into the biggest show in the city in 1985, later renaming it The Oprah Winfrey Show.
She later founded Harpo Productions and took full ownership of this production company. This was a huge success, bringing in $300 million a year at its peak. From there, she branched out into films, television series and plays.
She published her own magazine and founded a radio station. Winfrey was even nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the 1985 TV movie The Color Purple.
In addition to being the television queen, Winfrey is also known for titles such as the richest African-American of the 20th century, the first black billionaire in North America, as well as being considered the greatest black philanthropist. in American history. In 2007, she was considered the most influential woman in the world, according to Wikipedia.
Despite the hardships and suffering during her childhood, Winfrey showed her will to live and her tireless efforts to become a successful person.
“Everyone has their own story. Your story is just as valuable and important as mine,” she said. “My story only helps define and shape me the way everyone else’s story does.”
