Oprah biography by kitty kelley
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Unauthorized, But Not Untrue
Shortly after my book Oprah: A Biography was published last April, one of Oprah Winfrey’s open-minded fans wrote to her website saying she wanted to read the book. Oprah’s message-board moderator hurled a thunderbolt in response: “This book is an unauthorized biography.” The word unauthorized clanged on the screen like a burglar alarm. Suddenly I heard the rumble of thousands of Oprah book buyers charging out of Barnes & Noble—empty-handed.
Days before this exchange, I had felt the chill of media disdain when my publisher began booking my promotion tour. Larry King barred the door to his CNN talk show because, he said, he didn’t want to offend Oprah. Barbara Walters did the same thing, proclaiming on The View that the only reason people wrote unauthorized biographies was to dig “dirt.” There was no room for me at Charlie Rose’s roundtable and no comfy seat next to David Letterman. The late-night comic had recently reconciled with Oprah after a 16-year rift and did not want to risk another. On my 10-city tour I made few, if any, appearances on ABC-owned-and-operated stations because most of the stations that broadcast The Oprah Winfrey Show are owned by ABC or its affiliates. No one wanted to displease the diva of daytime televi
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‘Oprah’ captures a complex personality and life
In the 24 years she’s been the queen of TV talk shows, Oprah Winfrey has tackled every conceivable subject. Whether a transgender male giving birth or teachers sleeping with their students, nothing is too outrageous for “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and its 7 million daily U.S. viewers.
But there is, it seems, one taboo topic for the 56-year-old: herself.
Born Oprah Gail Lee and now known across the globe simply by her first name, she’s the missing piece in “Oprah: A Biography,” the unauthorized account of her life by Kitty Kelley, bestselling author of “Jackie Oh!,” “ Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography,” “The Royals” and numerous celebrity tell-alls.
Yet Winfrey’s refusal to be interviewed seems to have inspired, rather than deterred, Kelley. She interviewed 850 sources for “Oprah,” including major “gets,” such as Winfrey’s father, and used the thousands of interviews the rags-to-riches cultural icon has granted over the years to paint a portrait that becomes less flattering as Winfrey’s fame and influence grows.
The result is an impeccably researched and well-organized look into the unlikely life of a self-made woman who used her poor upbringing as a steppingstone to build an astounding media empire. Winfrey’s net worth i
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The revelations—even interpretation one let somebody see Winfrey’s take place dad—are duds.
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