Glamsquad Magazine March 2023

FEATURE

Oprah

Winfrey:

The Gift that Keeps

on Giving

Kimberley Schoeman

There are many high profile

talk show hosts, billionaire

philanthropists and Oscarnominated

actresses, but few

come close to Oprah Winfrey.

Upon reaching her 69th

birthday, the media mogul’s

generosity shows no signs of

slowing down. She is the gift

that keeps on giving.

The Oprah Winfrey Show

ran for 25 years until 2011,

making it the highest rated

daytime talk show in the history

of American television. But the

talk show is only one of many

highlights that punctuate the

career of the most influential

women in media.

Oprah’s origins in rural

Mississippi, giving birth at the

age of 14, and becoming the

first black anchor for her local

news broadcaster equipped

her to master the art of intimate

conversations, compelling

confrontations and telling

human interest stories. She

was the first black woman to

become a billionaire, which she

did in 2003 as seen in the Forbes

list.

Oprah’s film debut as Sofia

in The Colour Purple (1985)

earned her a nomination for Best

Supporting Actor at Academy

Awards and, in 2013, she was

awarded the Presidential Medal

of Freedom, the United States’

highest civilian honour.

Oprah before she

was Oprah

Born into poverty, the only

expectation for Oprah was she

would become a housekeeper,

as her mother and grandmother

were.

“As a child I was raised by my

grandmother who used to whip

me often. I would get beaten

and not allowed to have any

emotion about it”, Oprah said

on Oprah & Eckhart Tolle: A New

Earth.

At the age of 13, unable to

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