• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 1136 0

the title of Dr. Angelou because of her many honorary degrees. Oprah carried Maya’s monthly itinerary in her purse at all times so she could reach her morning, noon, and night. Quincy Jones stepped into the role of beloved uncle. “I truly learned how to love as a result of this man,” Oprah said. “It’s the first time I came to terms with, ‘Yes, I love this man, and it has nothing to do with wanting to go to bed with him or be romantically involved. I unconditionally love him and …’ I would slap the living shit out of somebody who said anything bad about Quincy.” Gayle King was the adoring sister Oprah had substituted for the drug-addicted Patricia Lee, and John Travolta seemed to replace her brother, Jeffrey Lee, who died of AIDS. Even Vernon Winfrey was supplanted. Once Oprah met Sidney Poitier, she bound him to her like a kind and loving father. “I call Sidney every Sunday and … we talk about life, we talk about reincarnation, we talk about the cosmos, we talk about the stars, we talk about the planets, we talk about energy. We talk about everything.”

In 2010, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of her magazine, Oprah sat with fans to answer their questions and again talked about the love she felt she had never received from her mother and father. “I’m in awe of people who felt their parents’ love every day of their lives,” she said. “They start out in the world with a full cup. The rest of us go through life trying to fill ours.”

Oprah continued to see her natural family on occasion, gave them money when they asked (“Gobs of it,” she said), and then fumed on the air about being treated like an ATM. Her sister, Patricia, felt that Oprah preferred giving money to her family instead of giving them her time and attention. “At times Oprah acts like she’s embarrassed by her family,” said Patricia. “She acts ashamed of her own mother, probably because Mom doesn’t always pronounce things correctly and doesn’t have a good education.” Patricia said that Oprah gave their mother a $50,000 Mercedes but would not give Vernita her home phone number. “If Mom wants to get in touch with Oprah, she has to call the studio like any fan and leave a message for Oprah to call her. In a real emergency, Mom would have to call Oprah’s secretary.”

For Father’s Day one year, Oprah gave Vernon a new Mercedes. “The 600 Mercedes,” she told a reporter for publication. “The $130,000 600 Mercedes, black on black, fully loaded Mercedes. Had Roosevelt [her makeup artist] drive it down there. A couple days passed and I hadn’t heard from my dad. So I called and said, ‘Did the car get there?’ He goes, ‘Yes, it did and I sure do appreciate that.’ I said, ‘Do you think you could’ve called and said, “I received the brand new 600 Mercedes”? You think you could show a little excitement?’ ”

Her blood family knew they did not have Oprah’s heart like the celebrity family she had reinvented for herself, and they resented their secondary position in her affections, but they knew their lack of acclaim could not enhance the image she wanted to present.

“We’re just country folk,” said her cousin Katharine Carr Esters, whom Oprah continued to embrace as “Aunt Katharine.” “She needs more for herself than what we have.… Oprah doesn’t see her real family much. Harpo is her family. She told me so.… I don’t like Gayle much, but Oprah does and that’s fine. I just think Gayle is too much into Gayle.”

Oprah made it clear to all her relatives that “Gayle is the most important person in the world to me,” and, as she told TV Guide, she gave them the steel-toed boot when they criticized Gayle. As she related to the writer: “It was my birthday party and all these family members were gathered in my house, and Gayle walked out of the room. And this distant relative says, ‘What’s sheee doing here? She’s not family.’ Well, I hit the ceiling. My hair stood up on my head. I had a screaming, raging, maniacal fit. I told them all—and I don’t care who they were—my family, my mother—that they could get out of my house now and never set foot in it again.… My friends are my family.”

Oprah frequently