Oprah Winfrey: The Untold Story

Bella Breakdown

Oprah, the name is synonymous with greatness, but her life hasn’t always been one of successful talk shows, celebrity interviews, philanthropic work, and mass gift giveaways.

Oprah was raised by her grandmother in rural Mississippi, with the cultural assumption being that she’d never elevate herself to anything more than the status of maid to a white household.

At the age of 7 Winfrey left her grandmother’s home to live with her mother in Milwaukee. At the tender age of 9 she was raped and at 10 she endured molestation by two close family relatives. At 14 she became pregnant, a secret she hid until the day of the child’s delivery. Winfrey’s baby was born premature and later died due to complications.

Oprah took this loss as a sign, and from that moment on she dedicated herself to rising above her circumstances. She began her career on television and in 1984 she was hired to host a morning show called AM Chicago. Within a year it was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show.

In 1986 she fought her show’s production team for the right to pay her staff higher wages which ultimately lead to Winfrey owning her own show headed by her own production company Harpo Studios. It would go on to become the highest-rated talk show in TV history.

Oprah made it her mission to validate women, give them a voice, and ensure her program make the statement, “you matter”, to women viewers around the country.

Winfrey would later go on to fund women’s education centers around the globe and launch her own cable network in 2011 called OWN.

If ever there was a women who represented a phoenix rising from the ashes, Oprah Winfrey is her.