Oprah_ A Biography - Kitty Kelley [210]
The confidentiality agreements gave Oprah a sense of security about anyone stepping forward to sully the image she had created. Not that the image was totally fraudulent, but it was fragile to exposure, because as open as she appeared to be, Oprah shared herself only in the most measured ways, doling out dollops of what she called “the bad stuff” in settings that she controlled totally. Having been “sold out for $19,000” by her sister, Patricia, who had been paid by the tabloids to talk about Oprah’s promiscuous childhood, her truancy, her teenage pregnancy, and the death of her baby boy, Oprah feared further tell-alls. Unable to put her trust in her Harpo “family,” she assumed the worst of everyone and threw up the strongest defense she could devise. Realistically, there was no way for her to pursue every former employee who might talk, but the prospect that she could kept most of them in line. Fear directed traffic on both sides of the street: she was as terrified of their revelations as they were of her lawsuits.
In addition to her five hundred employees at Harpo, Oprah required everyone at O, The Oprah Magazine, to sign confidentiality agreements and swear never to reveal anything about her, something few other publications required of their employees. When Oprah was asked why she imposed such imperial restrictions on those who worked for her, she again said it was all about “trust,” but this time Chicago Tribune journalists Ellen Warren and Terry Armour called her on it. “Actually, that’s precisely what it’s not about,” they wrote. “It’s about mistrust.”
Oprah made the headhunters who helped recruit teachers for her leadership academy, and every member of the faculty and all the dorm matrons, sign nondisclosure agreements. Her visits to the school were always shrouded in secrecy, and she insisted that guests at functions she attended in South Africa sign agreements banning cameras and tape recorders. People who purchased her real estate also had to sign covenants not to reveal details about her ownership. Her caterers, florists, party planners, interior decorators, upholsterers, painters, electricians, plumbers, gardeners, pilots, security guards, and even the veterinarians who treated her dogs had to sign. She once sent a cease-and-desist order during the taping of a VH1 reality show about dating because one of Gayle King’s ex-boyfriends was a contestant, and he had signed a confidentiality agreement not to talk about Oprah and Gayle.
“Everyone who works at Atlantic Aviation, the hangar where Oprah keeps her plane [the $47 million Bombardier BD-700 Global Express high-speed jet she purchased in 2006] has been signed to secrecy,” said Laura Aye, a former airfield safety officer. “They are not allowed to discuss her. If you ask about her, they say, ‘We can’t talk or we’ll lose our jobs.’ The girls there are very nervous. Before Oprah got her Global, she had a Gulfstream, and I had dealings with her at Midway.… I saw her about twenty times in the years I worked there and I never once saw her with a man. She always traveled with women.… She was cold, standoffish, and very difficult.… She’s not nice to the employees, except at Christmas, when she distributes gifts to everyone. I once had to yell at her when she took her dog out on the AOA [air operations area] to pee. No one is ever supposed to be there, because planes come in and out, and the jet blast could be fatal. I got a call from the tower that some woman was walking her dog and I had to get her out of there fast. I ran out and saw it was Oprah.
“ ‘Please, get out of the area right away, ma’am,’ I said.
“She roared