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Oprah and mom Vernita Lee carried shame surrounding their babies.
By now, most of the world knows that Oprah’s big secret was that she has a half-sister named Patricia who is the daughter of Oprah’s mom, Vernita Lee. The two met just this past Thanksgiving after Patricia, through a set of bizarre circumstances, figured out that she was indeed the daughter of Oprah’s mother.
Vernita Lee gave up her daughter Patricia back in 1963 with the hope of getting off of welfare. She also says she knew she could not raise another child adequately. While her reaction to finding her long lost daughter was not as affectionate as Patricia would have liked, Oprah that she had an aha moment after the two sisters left their mother’s house when she realized that her mother was still living in the past in 1963. Vernita was not allowing herself to fully embrace Patricia and the miracle that reuniting with her really is because she was stuck under the shame of what it meant to give up a child in 1963.
The OWN network lives up to its buzz.
I remember coming home from school in my teens and watching Oprah. At the time, she was competing with Phil Donahue for the 4 o’clock spot in NYC. Her show was so different. Coming from a woman’s perspective, it presented unique and controversial topics with dignity and meaning. When I grew older, I watched Oprah while feeding babies and cleaning up afternoon toys. Her name skyrocketed into an empire and she became a cheerleader for women everywhere to live their best life. Through it all, the meaning behind her empowerment message remained waiting there for us every weekday at 4pm.
So it was with an eager eye that I tuned into the OWN network over New Year’s weekend. My expectations were high but I was afraid because I kept wondering how she could create a whole network with quality programming. A one hour show of her own was one thing but a 24/7 network was quite another.
The problem is that the bar is set so high. Everything Oprah does is not only spot-on, but meaningful and inspirational. Would this measure up?
How similar is friendship to the mother-daughter bond?
A guest post from Dana Rousmaniere:
Have you seen the previews for Thursday night’s Barbara Walters interview with Oprah Winfrey? (A Barbara Walters Special: Oprah, The Next Chapter airs Thursday, December 9, 9:00 – 10:00 pm ET, on ABC.) In a preview video, Oprah is asked to describe her relationship with her best friend Gayle King and says through tears:
“She is the mother I never had. She is the sister everyone would want. She is the friend everyone deserves.”
Oprah has spoken very little in public about her own mother, Vernita Lee, who was an unwed teenager when she became pregnant with Winfrey. Oprah has stated that she respects her mother for choosing to go ahead with the pregnancy, even though it was difficult, but she has widely credited her father, Vernon Lee, for helping to raise her and make her the woman she is today. She once commented that she had chosen not to be a mother herself because she had not been mothered well.
Oprah and Gayle King have done countless segments on the show about mothers and daughters, and the tenuous relationship that often exists between the two. It’s a complex relationship, to be sure. So, what is it about Gayle King’s relationship with Oprah that’s strong enough to make her the mother Oprah never had?
The seemingly never-ending train wreck of John Edwards’ once promising political career jumped the tracks again Thursday, when Rielle Hunter, the most famous political mistress this side of Camilla Parker-Bowles, decided to tell her story once more, no doubt for the benefit of the five people in the United States who have yet to figure out exactly who she is.
In keeping with the spirit of the New Age mumbo jumbo she used to justify the affair in a GQ interview published last month, Hunter bared her soul to TV’s high priestess of self-actualization Oprah Winfrey, opining about how she began a relationship with Edwards to help him in his search to become “more his authentic self” and “to live a life of truth.” That quest included making the infamous sex tape “in the heat of the moment,” and, in the act that brought the entire mess to public attention, making a decision to not use birth control.
There’s really not a lot left to say here except GO AWAY NOW. PLEASE. Continue reading »
Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey is ending her daytime network TV talk show. She will announce the end of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” on Friday’s show, which observers believe may wind up being one of her most-watched ever.
If you barely remember afternoon television without this world-changing, life-changing, rules-changing production, don’t panic just yet. The show’s not ending this week. Or this year. Continue reading »
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