Oprah Winfrey ‘Oprah Winfrey’ was born on 29 January 1958 in the city of Cosico, Mississippi province, USA. His mother Vernita Lee used to work as a housekeeper. She became pregnant at an early age and gave birth to Oprah Winfrey. She was unmarried at that time.
Oprah Winfrey’s birth name was ‘Orpa’, which was derived from ‘Book Of Rooth’. But due to people not being able to pronounce the name correctly, she started calling ‘Oprah’ instead of ‘Orpa’. Later he adopted this name.
Oprah Winfrey’s early life
Due to the pathetic economic condition, Oprah’s mother was unable to raise them properly. So she left him with her grandmother ‘Hati Ma Lee’ and went elsewhere in search of work. Oprah spent the first 6 years of her life under the supervision of her grandmother.
Oprah’s grandmother was a religious woman. She used to take them with her to the church and read the Bible’s words. In this way, Oprah grew up listening to divine words.
His grandmother started teaching him to read and write at home. By the age of 3, Oprah had learned to read. Even at that age, his manner of speaking was so effective and artistic that everyone started calling him ‘The Preacher’. Her personality was booming in the religious atmosphere by the grandmother’s affection, harmony, and pathos, and the church. But at the same time, poverty was also going on. So when she was 6 years old, her grandmother sent her to Milwaukee to her mother.
Physical abuse of Oprah Winfrey
Oprah’s life with her mother was filled with poverty and torture. His mother used to stay outside the house most of the time due to working as a maid in the homes of others. For this reason, Oprah never felt related to her mother. This situation lasted for many years. During this time, Oprah was physically abused by many relatives and her mother’s confidant friends. This sequence continued for many years. She used to be so patient and afraid that she could not tell her mother anything about it. When he wanted to tell about this in the family. So he was accused of false accusation.
Her relationship with her mother was not well, emotionally, and physically she was severely broken. She wanted to get rid of this hellish life in some way. Finally, at the age of 13, she stole money from her mother’s purse and escaped from the house. She was pregnant at the time. Later she gave birth to a weak child, who died after birth.
Oprah Winfrey’s deteriorating relationship with her mother
After some time, his mother somehow discovered him and brought him back and got him enrolled in high school. His mother wanted Oprah to be able to make her future by studying and writing somehow. At school, Oprah found herself among the children of other rich homes and began to realize her poverty. She began to feel inferior to other school children. Because of this, she started stealing money from home to match her rich classmates. When asked in this regard, she would lie to her mother and argue with him. Eventually, fed up with Oprah’s antics, her mother sent her across Nashville, Tennessee to her stepfather, Varman, and never returned.
Positive change in Oprah Winfrey’s life
Varman was a virtuous and good man. Not only did Oprah get protection and shelter at her house, but she also got discipline. Oprah’s education was Varman’s first priority. He always encouraged them to move forward as a good student.
Oprah also accepted this positive change in her life and started forgetting her old life and moving forward in life afresh. She had understood that she has the ability that if she gets the right opportunity, she can go ahead and show it. He attended ‘Nashville East High School’ and pushed himself into studies and school activities. She wanted to prove herself. Gradually, she became known in school as a promising student. Along with studies, he had a special interest in Public Speaking and Drama. She was part of the Speech and Public Speaking Team at the school. Soon she became popular among all her teachers.
Oprah Winfrey’s radio newscast
One day in the last days of high school, she was rehearsing in her drama class, when a local radio station WVOL saw her and proposed to her to read the news for her radio. Oprah gladly accepted the offer and began her career as a radio newsreader. But still, studies were his first priority. When he got to know about the speech competition being organized for a scholarship of ‘Tennessee State University’, taking advantage of the opportunity, he participated in the competition and won the scholarship for ‘Tennessee State University’ by becoming the winner, Where he studied speech communication and performing art. In the first two years of the university, he continued to read the news on radio.
She became ‘Miss Black Nashville’ and ‘Miss Tinsey’ by winning two beauty contests at the age of 18 while staying at the university. It was a wonderful combination of beauty and intelligence, seeing that C.B.S. Television sent him a proposal for news reading, which he declined.
Offer by WJZ-TV News
Oprah wanted to work outside Nashville, Tennessee. He got this opportunity very soon. A TV from Baltimore, Maryland He was invited to read the news by the channel WJZ-TV News. At that time, his graduation was left for a few months. But the proposal was so attractive that he accepted the offer without completing the graduation. She was the first African-American woman to receive this offer. She then moved to Baltimore, Maryland.
News reporting job removal
At that time T.V. Whites ruled but used to be Americans. It was not easy for an African-American woman to make her position before him. His way of reading news was different from other newsreaders. She was sensitive and felt emotionally attached to every news, which was also reflected in her presentation style. His emotional involvement with the news was causing his boss to go on exasperating, so he fired Oprah from the job saying that she was not fit for news reporting.
A career as Host of Talk Show
Oprah, who left graduation after the news-reading job was thrown out of her job, saw her hopes falling apart. But luckily he got an opportunity to prove himself when his boss made him the co-host of a Talk Show ‘ People Are Talking ‘. It was shown for the first time in Talk Show 1979. While doing this show, Oprah realized that she had got a life. She had understood what she was made for. She was the host of the show for 6 years. After that, he never looked back.
‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ debut
In 1973, Oprah moved to Chicago and started presenting AML Chicago, a morning talk-show of WLS-TV. At that time the talk-show named ‘Donahue’ was number one on the popularity chart. In front of which Oprah’s show got the last place. Now the biggest challenge before Oprah was to improve the status of her talk-show in the count-down chart. He continued his efforts and gradually his talk-show started gaining popularity. And within a few months, it became the most popular talk-show from a low-rated talk-show. Its popularity increased so much that it had to be extended from half an hour to an hour. It was later renamed ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’.
Initially, the program focused on women’s issues, but later it also included topics related to spirituality, meditation, politics, charity, social and medical fields, as well as a book to increase its popularity. Release, film release, celebrity interviews were also included and prizes like car and Australia trip were also introduced to woo the audience. Many disputed issues were also discussed in this program, due to which the popularity of this talk show reached its peak. With the success of this show, Oprah became a well-known name not only in America but also in the world. His talk show ran for more than two decades, with 5000 broadcasts in 24 seasons.
‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ awards
In 1969, his talk show received three “Day-time Amy Award” – best host, best direction, best talk show. In the coming year too, his talk show received the day-time any award of the best talk show. He also received the International Radio and Television Society’s ‘broadcaster of the year award’. She was the youngest person to receive this award.
Oprah Winfrey Net Worth
In June 2014, Oprah Winfrey’s net worth was estimated at 3.2 billion by Forbes. She is not only the highest-grossing TV artist but also the richest self-made woman in America and the richest Afro-American woman of the 20th century.
Debut in films
After TV, Oprah turned to films and starred in Steven Walkelberg’s Alice The Walker’s The Color Purple. She was nominated for the Oscar Award for Best Supporting Actress for Best Performance in this film.
Start of Own Harpo Production Inc.
In 1979, he started his production company Harpo Production Inc. Started. In 1919, her company acquired full ownership and production rights for ‘ The Oprah Show ‘, and thus Oprah became the first woman in history to produce her Talk Show.
His production company also produced several films. Oprah also acted in those films. Among the films produced by his production company are The Women of Brewster Place, There Are No Children Here Before Women Had Wings, Beloved.
Books by Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey was also involved in writing and co-author of 5 bestseller books. He launched two magazines ‘O, The Oprah Magazine’ and ‘O at Home’.
Social work
Oprah was also ahead in philanthropic social activities. She established the ‘ Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy ‘ for girls in Johannesburg. In 2011, ‘Academy of motion picture arts & science’ gave him a special Oscar ‘The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award’ due to his philanthropic works.
Honors received by Oprah Winfrey
He was listed by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. In 2003, Forbes magazine included him in the list of the world’s billionaires. She is the first Afro-American woman to be included in this list. US President Barack Obama (in 20l3 Barack Obama ) and Best civilian honor in the country, ” The Presidential Medal Of Freedom received.
