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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