Supermother of the USA Oprah Winfrey turns 70
Published: Tuesday, Jan 23rd 2024, 11:11
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Whether it's Harry and Meghan, Adele or Kim Kardashian: when stars in the USA want to say something, they go to Oprah Winfrey. The presenter, actress and producer is now 70 years old.
When it's really important, stars, athletes and politicians in the USA go to Oprah Winfrey's TV sofa: whether Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan after they left Great Britain, Barack Obama on his way to the White House or professional cyclist Lance Armstrong after doping allegations against him came to light.
With her empathetic, gentle and patient manner, Winfrey encourages viewers to speak openly and at length about unpleasant topics - and attracts millions of viewers to their screens. The presenter, who turns 70 on Monday (January 29), is almost like a kind of supermother to the nation.
Täschligate in Switzerland
Winfrey has repeatedly made it clear that she does not want to become president herself - even though many of her fans long for her to do so. Winfrey has always actively supported her favorites - such as Obama or Democrat Stacey Abrams - in recent years, but has always ruled out running for president herself.
Winfrey, who also works as an actress and producer and has her own television channel, OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network), is one of the most influential women in the USA and beyond. Forbes magazine attributes her fortune to 2.8 billion dollars. Her network of friends includes dozens of influential and famous people.
A good ten years ago, she catapulted Switzerland into the international headlines because of a crocodile handbag costing 35,000 francs. A saleswoman in a Zurich boutique refused to show her the bag on the grounds that it was "too expensive" for her. Accusations of racism were the result. Switzerland Tourism apologized and Winfrey also said afterwards that she was sorry that she had said it had happened in Switzerland. And: "I would have fainted if I had seen the price tag."
From the very bottom to the very top
Winfrey was born to an underage mother in Mississippi in 1954. She grew up in poverty, was raped by her own account at the age of nine, was pregnant at 14 and lost her son soon after birth. But Winfrey did not give up, moved to Tennessee and got a job in radio while still at high school. After school, she became a news anchor at a local TV station.
However, Winfrey's strength from the very beginning was sensitive interviews, which is why she was transferred from her job as a newsreader to a talk studio. She later got her own "Oprah Winfrey Show", which was to become the most successful talk show in the history of US television. When the show ended in 2011 after 25 years as host, countless fans mourned her passing. However, she remained a kind of voice of American conscience even after that.
Winfrey is a leading voice for black people in the USA in particular. She herself sees her success as "reparation" for all those who have suffered more than her in the long struggle for equality in the USA.
Most recently, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington unveiled a portrait of Winfrey in a purple robe painted by artist Shawn Michael Warren. "I'm about to celebrate my 70th birthday and I have a portrait of myself in the National Portrait Gallery, along with all the greats: Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Ida B. Wells, Michelle and Barack Obama, Lean Horne, John F. Kennedy, Oprah Winfrey."
New edition of "The color purple"
The multi-award-winning Winfrey, who has been together with author Stedman Graham for a long time, now has the privilege of only being able to focus on the things that are really important to her. She has just produced a new edition of the film "The Color Purple", for whose predecessor she was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 1986. Winfrey made headlines on the red carpets, having become considerably slimmer. "It's not one thing, it's everything," she replied to questions about her weight loss recipe. "I want to keep it that way."
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