Born to an unwed teenage mother, Oprah Winfrey spent her first years on her grandmother's farm in Kosciusko, Mississippi, while her mother looked for work in the North. Life on the farm was primitive, but her grandmother taught her to read at an early age, and at age three Oprah was reciting poems and Bible verses in local churches. She lived in great poverty and often had to dress in potato sacks for which she was mocked at school .Despite the hardships of her physical environment, she enjoyed the loving support of her grandmother and the church community, who cherished her as a gifted child.
Her world changed for the worse at age six, when she was sent to Milwaukee to live with her mother, who had found work as a housemaid.young Oprah was repeatedly molested by male relatives and another visitor. The abuse, which lasted from the ages of nine to 13, was emotionally devastating. When she tried to run away, she was sent to a juvenile detention home, only to be denied admission because all the beds were filled. At 14, she was out of the house and on her own. By her own account, she was sexually promiscuous as a teenager. After giving birth to a baby boy who died in infancy, she went to Nashville, Tennessee to live with her father.Vernon Winfrey was a strict disciplinarian, but he gave his daughter the secure home life she needed. He saw to it that she met a curfew, and he required her to read a book and write a book report each week. "As strict as he was," says Oprah, "he had some concerns about me making the best of my life, and would not accept anything less than what he thought was my best." In this structured environment, Oprah flourished, and became an honor student, winning prizes for oratory and dramatic recitation.
. She left school and signed on with a local television station as a reporter andanchor.In 1976, she moved to Baltimore to join WJZ-TV News as a co-anchor. There, she co-hosted her first talk show, People Are Talking, while continuing to serve as anchor and news reporter. She had found a niche that perfectly suited her outgoing, empathetic personality, and word soon spread to other cities. In January 1984, she was invited to Chicago to host a faltering half-hour morning program on WLS-TV. In less than a year, she turned AM Chicago into the hottest show in town. The format was soon expanded to an hour, and in September 1985 it was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show.A year later, The Oprah Winfrey Show was broadcast nationally, and quickly became the number one talk show in national syndication. On February 10, 1993, when Winfrey sat down with Michael Jackson for what would become the most-watched interview in television history.As host of The Oprah Winfrey Show, she held millions of viewers in her thrall for 25 years, branching into virtually every possible media niche.
She currently has an estimated net worth of 2.7 billion dollars. She owns multiple homes across the globe and for a period was the richest black person in the world. Her talk show had higher ratings than any others throughout history. Many assessments have accredited her to being the most influential women in the world
Her name is a household word and has even been given the term ‘the Oprah Effect.’ The Oprah Effect is a term used to describe how her endorsement has made the sales of a product, service or other item skyrocket. She has created several different charitable foundations for different causes from helping Katrina survivors to aiding with the education of South Africa. Through the years she has given away millions to foundations and headed up drives to bring in more happiness in lifes of people.
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