50 Fun Facts About Oprah Winfrey

How was Oprah's first name spelled on her birth certificate?

It came from the biblical Orpah in the Book of Ruth; constant mispronunciation made 'Oprah' stick.

In which Mississippi town was Winfrey born in 1954?

Kosciusko: her mother went north to look for work soon after the birth, leaving Winfrey on her grandmother's farm there for her first six years.

As a small child Winfrey was mocked for wearing clothes made of what?

Potato sacks: her grandmother Hattie Mae was too poor to buy clothes, yet she taught Winfrey to read before the girl was three.

What childhood nickname did Winfrey earn for her recitations?

The Preacher: by the age of three she was reciting Bible verses in church, and at home she practised interviewing her corncob doll and the crows on the fence.

At six, Winfrey moved to an inner-city neighbourhood in which city?

Milwaukee: she joined her mother Vernita Lee, whose long hours as a housemaid left little time for Oprah, and as a troubled teenager she was sent on to her father.

What was the Nashville trade of Winfrey's father Vernon, who she has said 'saved' her?

Barber: Vernon Winfrey ran a barbershop and sat on the city council, and his strict rules turned his daughter into an honours student.

Which beauty pageant did Winfrey win as a teenager in the early 1970s?

Miss Black Tennessee: she won it while reading the news part-time at WVOL, the radio station that hired her after she won its Miss Fire Prevention title.

Winfrey's scholarship to Tennessee State University came from winning what?

An oratory contest: public speaking paid for college, yet she left one credit short for a TV job and finished her degree only after she was famous.

Which future TV host covered the same Nashville stories at a rival station while Winfrey anchored at WLAC-TV?

John Tesh, later the long-time host of Entertainment Tonight, has confirmed that the two rival cub reporters also dated for a short time.

In 1976 Winfrey moved to which city's WJZ-TV to co-anchor the six o'clock news?

Baltimore: WJZ-TV removed her from the anchor desk in 1977, and the demotion led to the talk show People Are Talking, where she found the format that suited her.

Which low-rated WLS-TV morning show did Winfrey take over in January 1984?

AM Chicago: within months her warm style took the half-hour show from last place to first in its slot, and it was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Which film critic persuaded Winfrey to sign a syndication deal with King World?

Roger Ebert: on a dinner date he worked out on a napkin how much more a syndicated show would earn her than his own did, and she took the advice.

At a 2004 season premiere, what did Winfrey give every member of her studio audience?

A new car: all 276 guests got a Pontiac G6, donated by General Motors as a publicity splash rather than paid for by Winfrey.

Whose programme did Winfrey's show displace as America's number-one daytime talk show?

Phil Donahue's: within months of arriving in Chicago her last-placed local show was out-drawing his there, before she beat him nationwide.

Through which company did Winfrey take ownership of her talk show?

Harpo Productions, 'Oprah' spelled backwards, was set up to make the screen projects she wanted to see produced, and it went on to take over her show from ABC.

Winfrey co-founded which women's cable network?

Oxygen: she co-founded the channel in the late 1990s, then moved on to launch a network under her own name, OWN, in 2011.

OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network, was created by rebranding which existing channel?

Discovery Health: the 2008 plan called for a 2009 relaunch, but the rebranded channel did not reach air until January 1, 2011.

Which actor jumped on Winfrey's couch during a 2005 interview to show how in love he was?

Tom Cruise: he hopped onto the sofa and dropped to one knee over new girlfriend Katie Holmes, a scene that set Hollywood talking and was widely parodied.

Winfrey's 1993 prime-time interview with which star became the most-watched television interview in US history?

Michael Jackson: at his Neverland Ranch he told her that the skin disorder vitiligo, not bleaching, had lightened his skin.

Winfrey's December 2005 appearance with which late-night host ended a rumoured 16-year feud?

David Letterman: after the taping he walked her across the street to the Broadway opening of her musical The Color Purple, and the truce drew his biggest audience since 1994.

Which rapper told GQ that Winfrey gave him a 'hard time' when he appeared on her show with the cast of Crash?

Ludacris said she lectured him about his lyrics and edited his comments out of the episode; Winfrey answered that she objects only to rap that marginalises women.

Which duchess sat down with Winfrey for a prime-time CBS interview in March 2021?

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex: she and Prince Harry said a royal had asked how dark their son's skin would be, and the Queen replied that 'some recollections may vary'.

Winfrey's Oscar-nominated role in The Color Purple (1985) was which character?

Sofia: Winfrey had never acted before producer Quincy Jones cast her, yet the debut earned her both Oscar and Golden Globe nominations.

To prepare for Beloved (1998), Winfrey underwent a simulation of what?

The experience of slavery: she was tied up, blindfolded and left alone in the woods to prepare for playing Sethe, yet the film she produced flopped at the box office.

Winfrey voiced Eudora in which Disney film?

The Princess and the Frog: Disney first asked Winfrey to advise on how the film handled race, and then cast her as the heroine's mother.

Which character did Winfrey play in the 2018 film A Wrinkle in Time?

Mrs. Which is the oldest and wisest of the three guides, and director Ava DuVernay did not have to think twice about the casting: she had Winfrey in mind from the start.

In 1988 Winfrey celebrated losing 67 pounds by bringing what onto her stage?

A wagon of fat: she had gone four months on a liquid diet without solid food, yet many of the pounds came back once she returned to real food.

Fortune called which Winfrey venture 'the most successful start-up ever in the industry' in 2002?

The magazine's final monthly print edition was December 2020.

Which athlete admitted doping to Winfrey in 2013 after years of denials?

Lance Armstrong: cycling had stripped his seven Tour de France titles months earlier, and he told her he had used banned drugs for every one of those wins.

Winfrey calls her main home in Montecito, California, by what name?

The Promised Land: she has kept adding to the estate, even buying neighbour Jeff Bridges's retreat, until it covered nearly 70 acres.

Who has been Winfrey's partner since the mid-1980s?

Stedman Graham: the public relations executive proposed in 1992 and a wedding was planned for the following year, but the couple simply stayed together unmarried.

Who has been Winfrey's best friend since their early twenties?

Gayle King: they met in their twenties at a TV station where King was a production assistant and Winfrey read the news, long before either was famous.

Whom did Winfrey call her 'mother-sister-friend' and mentor?

Maya Angelou: reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Winfrey felt its author's childhood mirrored her own, each raised by a grandmother in the South.

In 2015 Winfrey bought a tenth of which company?

Weight Watchers: she took a seat on its board as well as her 10% stake, fronted its adverts and lost weight on the programme herself.

In 2018 Winfrey became the first Black woman to receive which lifetime honour?

Cecil B. DeMille Award: her acceptance speech at the Golden Globes set fans speculating that she would run for president in 2020, an idea she ruled out.

Which 26.2-mile race did Winfrey finish in under four and a half hours in 1994?

The Marine Corps Marathon: she ran it in Washington, D.C., after training off dozens of pounds with Bob Greene, and finished in 4 hours 29 minutes.

Which TV psychologist first met Winfrey as a legal consultant preparing her for the Texas beef trial?

Phil McGraw: his trial-consulting firm coached her through the case, and after she won she put him on her show, which led to his own series, Dr. Phil.

On which sitcom did Winfrey play the therapist to whom the star came out in 1997's 'The Puppy Episode'?

Ellen: despite threats from advertisers, some 42 million people watched Ellen DeGeneres's character come out to Winfrey's therapist, yet ABC cancelled the sitcom a year later.

Which John Steinbeck classic shot to the top of the charts after Winfrey picked it for her Book Club?

East of Eden: the 1952 novel was her pick to revive the club in 2003 after she had shut it down for a year.

Which author did Winfrey confront on air in 2006 over fabrications in a memoir she had championed?

James Frey: after The Smoking Gun exposed inventions in A Million Little Pieces, she told him on air that she felt 'duped' and that he had 'betrayed millions of readers'.

Texas cattlemen sued Winfrey after she said a 1996 show on mad cow disease had stopped her eating what?

Another burger: 'It has just stopped me cold from eating another burger,' she told viewers, and a jury later cleared her and guest Howard Lyman after five weeks of testimony.

In which Texas city was Winfrey taken to court in 1998 over her remarks about beef?

Amarillo: Winfrey moved her show to the city and taped it there while the trial ran, and when the jury found for her she declared that 'free speech not only lives, it rocks'.

On which programme did Winfrey make her first ever political endorsement, in September 2006?

Larry King Live: asked about a fan's campaign to make her president, she told him to put that energy behind Barack Obama, months before Obama declared he was running.

Which Illinois governor said he considered offering Winfrey Obama's vacant Senate seat?

Rod Blagojevich floated her name on television weeks after his arrest on charges of trying to sell that very seat; Winfrey said she was amused and 'just not interested'.

Winfrey hosted the 'Prayer for America' memorial service twelve days after the September 11 attacks at which New York venue?

Yankee Stadium: Winfrey hosted the service in the Bronx, where clergy of the Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Sikh and Hindu faiths shared one podium at centre field.

In which 2013 Lee Daniels film did Winfrey star opposite Forest Whitaker?

The Butler: playing Gloria, wife of a White House butler, won her a Screen Actors Guild nomination and plenty of Oscar talk, but no Academy Award nomination followed.

Winfrey took her staff and their families on holiday where in 2006?

Hawaii: she treated her staff and their families to the trip, then showed viewers clips of their holiday on her season premiere that September.

Winfrey's Leadership Academy for Girls, built with a $40 million investment, is in which country?

South Africa: the school grew out of talks with Nelson Mandela, who stood beside her at its 2002 launch, and it opened in 2007 for girls from deprived backgrounds.

Barack Obama gave Winfrey which honour at the White House in 2013?

Presidential Medal of Freedom: the country's highest civilian honour came from the president she had campaigned for in 2008, her first venture into electoral politics.

With which star did Winfrey set up the People's Fund of Maui after the 2023 wildfires?

Dwayne Johnson: the pair launched the fund and asked the public to give too, a request that drew a backlash and an apology from Johnson.