Trivia

First African American woman billionaire in history and first African American female entrepreneur to appear on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Over the 25-year run of her daytime TV talk show, she never once missed a day through absenteeism.

Is the first woman in history to own and produce her own talk show.

Over the course of her 25 years hosting The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986), she taped 217 episodes dedicated to sexual abuse, having been a survivor of such abuse herself as a young girl. She was instrumental in the passage of the Oprah Bill, in the early 1990s. The bill was signed into law by President Bill Clinton and is aimed at stopping child abuse.

Gave birth to a baby boy when she was just 14. The baby passed away after two weeks, from complications of being born two months premature.

Raised in abject poverty, she received her first pair of shoes at age 6 (1960). She learned to read at age 2½. In fact, when it was time for her to start kindergarten, she wrote a note to her teacher insisting she should be in first grade. The teacher agreed and after finishing that grade she was then skipped to third grade.

Permanently withdrew herself and her show from consideration for a Daytime Emmy Award after being awarded the Lifetime Achievement (1998). She was quoted as saying, "After you've achieved it for a lifetime, what else is there?".

Ever since she was 15 she has kept a journal of every day of her life.

Her immensely popular television talk show is a Harpo Production. Harpo is "Oprah" spelled backwards. Harpo is also the name of a character in The Color Purple (1985) (Oprah's film debut) played by Willard E. Pugh.

Her name was originally "Orpah", after the biblical figure in the Book of Ruth. Several different stories allude to the fact that either a misspelling on her birth certificate or a struggle with the pronunciation of her name eventually led to "Oprah" being adopted as her given name.

A DNA test on the show African American Lives (2006) revealed that her genetic ancestry is 89% Sub-Saharan African, 8% Native American, and 3% East Asian (which may be Native American markers). Her African genetic roots include Kpelle, Bamileke and Zambian.

She has become the first African-American woman to own a cable network. It is called OWN, which stands for Oprah Winfrey Network.

When her talk show went independent for the first time, her staff consisted of four people, including herself. By 2011 her empire had expanded to 464 employees.

In September 1997 it was announced that she would receive $130 million for continuing her talk show through the 1999-2000 television season.

Attended Nicolet High School (Glendale, WI) for a short period of time as a teenager but finally graduated from East Nashville High School, where she was voted most popular (Class of 1971). She graduated from Tennessee State University in Nashville , with a degree in Speech and Performing Arts (Class of 1987).

Was sued by Texas cattlemen who claimed that she defamed beef on her talk show. The case went to trial, causing her to have to relocate her show's production to Amarillo, TX, for the duration of the trial. She was found not liable.

In July 2007 her two-year-old golden retriever, Gracie, passed away after accidentally choking on another dog's ball.

According to Forbes.com, her 2019 net worth is $2.6 billion. In 2003 she became the first African-American woman to make the list of billionaires.

In 2005, after years of publicly criticizing David Letterman' s late-night television show, Late Show with David Letterman (1993), she and Letterman finally settled their differences when she agreed to appear on the 12/1/05 episode, during which time she was to be in New York to promote her musical of The Color Purple (1985). During the Superbowl of 2007, they appeared in an advertisement together for Letterman's show. In the ad, they sat together on a couch watching the Super Bowl, wearing opposing team jerseys.

Due to her immense popularity on television, audiences tended to think she was the first African-American woman to host her own TV talk show, when that distinction actually belonged to Della Reese with her short-lived Della (1969).

In June 2004 she purchased a house at 3330 Radcliffe Avel., West Vancouver, BC, Canada. This 11,000-sq.-ft. waterfront property was on sale for Cdn $18 million, at the time British Columbia's most expensive house, but she paid Cdn $17 million (US $13 million).

In April 2002 she and her former personal trainer, Bob Greene, announced they are buying seven shoreline lots from Getty Family Trust to build several homes, including one on a 102-acre lot, for her. They plan to put conservation first and keep site development low-key.

In 1994 was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, NY.

Has a cameo playing herself in Throw Momma from the Train (1987). In a "clip" from her show, she interviews a writer (the ex-wife of Billy Crystal's character) whose plagiarized and embellished "life story" is at the top of the best-seller lists (foreshadowing the James Frey controversy 20 years later).

In 2009 she received an honorary doctorate from Duke University in Durham, NC, and was the commencement speaker.

On December 7, 2018 she received the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globe Award; it was presented to her by Reese Witherspoon.

In October 1999 she was given an honorary National Book Award for her "influential contribution to reading and books".

Teenage crushes were Beatle Paul McCartney and the Jackson 5's Jackie Jackson.

Ranked #1 Pop Culture Icon on VH1's 200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons (2003), beating out Superman and Elvis Presley.

Since the inception of the "Book Club" segment on her show, an estimated 30 million books were sold as a direct result of the worldwide publicity.

Was a guest at Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger's star-studded wedding.

In October 2006 she collapsed from heat exhaustion during a visit to her birthplace of Kosciusko, MS.

Daughter of Vernon Winfrey by Vernita Lee (5/2/1935-11/22/2018). Had two half-siblings from her mother. Her half-brother passed away from AIDS in December 1988 and her half-sister, Patricia Lee, passed away under mysterious circumstances in 2003. Her niece is Chrishaunda Lee Perez, the daughter of her late half-sister Patricia. She walked her niece down the aisle at Chrishaundra's wedding in 2005.

Her partner since 1986 is Stedman Graham.

Ranked first in "Entertainment Weekly"'s 1998 list of the most powerful people in show business, but dropped to sixth on the 1999 list. Still, she was the highest-ranking performer, as well as the highest-ranking woman, and the only African-American to make the list.

In 2013 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.

In 1999 she and Stedman Graham were teaching "Dynamics of Leadership" class at Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

In May 2007 she appeared on the annual "Time" 100 list, the magazine's ranking of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. She is the only person who has been on that list five times.

Received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, a special Academy Award for her charity work, on November 12, 2011 in Los Angeles, CA.

Last person to interview Liberace on television before his death--Episode dated 25 December 1986 (1986).

Was invited to the premiere of Interview with the Vampire (1994). She walked out of the showing in disgust due to the film's gore, specifically the scene where Lestat is bleeding profusely after having his throat slit by Claudia.

Her broadcasting career began in the late 1960s as a teenage intern at WVOL, an African-American radio station in Nashville, TN.

Recipient of the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors; other recipients that year were Jerry Herman, Paul McCartney, Merle Haggard and Bill T. Jones.

On May 19, 2018, she attended the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, bedecked in a Stella McCartney-designed pale pink dress and sporting a flowered hat designed for her by Irish milliner Philip Treacy.

In 2006 she earned an estimated $260 million in salary from her various interests including syndication, cable television, and print magazines. That same year she gave $58,300,000 to charity to the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy, Oprah's Angel Network, and other groups.

Listed as one of 12 "Promising New Actors of 1985" in "John Willis' Screen World", Vol. 37.

Her idol is Diana Ross. Her favorite album is "Graceland" (1986) by Paul Simon. She was interviewed about the album for the documentary Under African Skies (2012).

Her personal chef until 2007 was Art Smith.

In addition to being a news anchor on WJZ-TV13 in Baltimore, MD, she was co-host with Richard Sher (a reporter) on a local talk show called "People Are Talking" on that station.

In November 1999 she was awarded the 50th-anniversary medal by the National Book Foundation in New York City.