There may be hardly a person in the united state, who don’t know about Oprah Winfrey and her struggle from nothing to something, from broke to a billionaire.
But if you are someone who doesn’t know about the struggle and how she fought the odds to be where she is today.
Then don’t worry, because, in today’s article we will talk about Oprah Winfrey’s life. So stay tuned till the end, to get all the information about her life.
She was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi, the United States on January 29, 1954. When she was born, her family’s financial condition was not good, and later on, she was raised in Milwaukee ( Inner-City).
Oprah Winfrey said in an interview that during her childhood, she was molested. At the age of 14 years, she was pregnant and later gave birth to a premature child who died in infancy.
Afterward, her mother sent her to Vernon Winfrey, who was the father of Oprah. Her father, Vernon Winfrey was a barber in Tennessee.
While doing her high-school studies, she was also working in radio and by the age of 19 years, she started doing a co-anchor job for some local evening news.
After struggling for some more years, she finally launched a production company that positively impacted her life.
Oprah Winfrey Overview
Full Name | Orpah Gail Winfrey |
Age | 66 Years |
Date Of Birth | January 29, 1954 |
Place Of Birth | Kosciusko, MS |
Height | 5 feet 7 inches |
Weight | 72 kg/160 lbs |
Zodiac Sign | Aquarius |
Profession | Author, TV Presenter, TV Producer, Actress, Film Producer, Motivational Speaket, Journalist |
Marital Status | No Info |
Nationality | American |
Religion | Christian |
Spouse | No Info |
Oprah Winfrey: Early Life
Let’s talk about the early life of Oprah or Orpah Winfrey. Now you might be thinking why Orpah because Oprah was not the name real name of her. When she was born, her actual name was “Orpah”. But people around her never pronounced her name clearly, they also pronounced it Oprah instead of Orpah. So because of all the wrong pronouncing thing made her name from Orpah to Oprah.
Now going further, she was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi on January 29, 1954. When she was born, her mother was an unmarried teenage mother. Many people are confused about, who is the real father of Oprah Winfrey. According to some data, Vernon Winfrey was her biological father, he was a coal miner and later turned into a barber.
After the birth of Oprah, her mother moved to the north to live with her maternal grandmother. Oprah spent her starting six years at her grandmother’s house, who was very poor but kind from the heart, her grandmother’s name was Hattie Mae Lee. You can imagine the condition of her grandmother by knowing that she could not even have enough money to provide some clothes for Oprah.
Oprah has to wear some dresses which were made of potato sacks. As I said in the beginning that she might be poor but she was kind, she taught Oprah how to read. She always took her to church and because Oprah was able to recite Bible verses, she was named “The Preacher”.
When she made a successful career in media, her grandmother was not shooked. Because, by the talkative nature of Oprah, she always knew that she will make her career in some field like media.
Oprah Winfrey: Career
Now it is time to talk about the career of Oprah Winfrey. When she started working in local media, she became the first black female news anchor at WTVF-TV ( WLAC-TV is the old name of WTVF-TV ).
At WTVF-TV, her job was covered the same stories as John Tesh. In the year 1976, she left the job at WTVF-TV and joined WJZ-TV, which was owned by Baltimore.
She was working as a co-anchor at WJZ-TV in a six o’clock news. After like 1 year, the owner of WJZ-TV removed her from her post and gave her some lower positions at the station. Later on, she was recruited as co-host with Richard Sher in WJZ’s local talk show “People Are Talking”. In the year 1983, she was offered to host a low-rated half-hour morning talk show at WLS-TV, the name of the show was “AM Chicago”.
The first episode of AM Chicago was released or aired in the year 1984. When she joined the show, it was the last place show according to the ratings, and but after the efforts of Winfrey, the show became the highest-rated talk show in Chicago.
In the year 1985, Oprah co-starred or worked in “Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple” as Sofia, who was a distraught housewife. For the role she played in Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple, she was nominated for an Academy Award as best supporting actress.
In the year 1993, she hosted a very rare prime-time interview with the god of pop Michael Jackson. According to some reports, it was the fourth most viewed American television event in the history of TV, it gained more than 36 million views. She is not only an actress but she also a voice actor.
She gave her voice in many shows like in 2006, she gave her voice to Gussie the goose in Charlotte’s Web. In the year 2007, she voiced Judge Bumbleton in Bee movie, not only this she also co-starring the voices of Renée Zellweger & Jerry Seinfeld.
If you can remember Eudora the mother of Princess Tiana from The Princess and the Frog, she voiced Eudora. Recently in the year, 2018 Oprah Winfrey played the character of a Which in A Wrinkle in Time, in the film every called her “Mrs. Which”.
Net worth & Social Media
As I mentioned in the introduction part of the article that Oprah Winfrey’s financial condition was not good, but from that situation to become a billionaire was a very tough job for her. Now in this point, we will talk about the income sources and net-worth of Oprah Winfrey. If we go age by age, then at the age of 32 she became a million when Oprah Winfrey’s talk show got national syndication.
In the year 1995, when she was 41 years old she had a total net worth of 340 million US Dollars. When she achieved this mark she replaced Bill Cosby ( He was the only African American in the Forbes 400 list ). In the year 2000, she established a net worth of more than 800 million US dollars. During the year 2006, she was the highest-paid TV entertainer in the whole USA.
Her earning in the year 2006 was more than $260 dollars, that increased to 275 million US dollars in 2008. But after 12 years, in 2020, her net worth went from $275 million to $2.6 billion, which is insane. Now let’s talk about her income sources. According to a report, she has multiple income sources like Weight Watchers ownership, TV shows & networks, executive production, film appearance, Oprah’s Book Club; O, published book, etc.
Now I will tell you about her social media. So she has more than 19 million followers on her Instagram, close to 20 million followers on her Facebook, and more than 43 million followers on Twitter.