Oprah_ A Biography - Kitty Kelley [100]
“I designed a circle in the parking lot for her wedding, because I’d heard her talk on her show about eventually wanting to get married. I didn’t tell her this at the time, but I had it in mind for her. Then I met Stedman and knew there wouldn’t ever be a wedding. He’s simply a fixture in her life. Window dressing. A way for a single, childless woman to appear normal to her married audience of women with husbands and children. Stedman is a nice man. I remember his beautiful, elegant, long fingers. He was handsome, too, but he’s nothing more than an attractive escort. I never saw any warmth or affection between them—any at all during the four years I worked with Oprah. I never saw touching or hugging or kissing between them ever. They didn’t even hold hands. But Oprah wants to come across as normal to her audience, so she needs to have Stedman around so she can refer to him.… She talked about Gayle far more than she ever did Stedman, but I don’t think that she and Gayle are a lesbian couple. They’re just very good friends.… Oprah keeps Stedman around because she wants her audience to accept her as a normal woman with a man in her life, but from what I saw during those four years I can tell you there’s nothing there with Stedman. Nothing at all.”
Months after van Sweden had planted the last purple flower on Oprah’s Rolling Prairie farm, she and Stedman and Gayle were spending a fall weekend together. Gayle had arrived from Connecticut and was in the kitchen when Oprah went outside to greet Stedman, who was arriving from Chicago. She later related their brief conversation.
“I want you to marry me,” he said.
“Is this the proposal?” asked Oprah.
“I think it’s time.”
“Oh, that’s really great.”
She walked into the kitchen a bit breathless. “You are not going to believe this,” she whispered to Gayle. “Stedman just proposed.” They planned to be married on September 8 of the following year, because that was the date of Vernon’s wedding to Zelma. Oprah called Oscar de la Renta to design her wedding dress. She and Stedman announced their engagement in an interview with Gayle on television—or rather, Oprah made the announcement, which she said upset Stedman. Days later, on November 23, 1992, during the ratings sweeps, they were on the cover of People, next to a blaring headline: “OPRAH’S ENGAGED!”
Months before, in what was hyped as their first joint interview, Oprah and Stedman appeared on Inside Edition and complained to Nancy Glass that too much publicity threatened their relationship. “We’ve been through a lot of stress,” Stedman said. “Not having any privacy when you go out.” Apparently, neither saw the irony in going on national television to bemoan the public attention they attracted.
After six years, Stedman had officially progressed from boyfriend to fiancé. A decade later he would be politely described as Oprah’s life partner, which is how he has remained for years and years—a perpetual escort, a roommate, and an occasional traveling companion.
*On July 30, 2007, Mrs. Esters told the author the name and family background of Oprah’s real father on the condition that the information not be published until Vernita Lee tells her daughter the entire story. “And you’ll know when that happens because Oprah will probably have a show on Finding Your Real Father. As I said, the girl wastes nothing.”
OPRAH’S REIGN as America’s number one talk show host for more than two decades divides into the early years of 1984–1994 and the years that followed. For viewers, the first ten years marked Oprah sleaze, the