Oprah Winfrey, one of the richest and most powerful women in the world, has the ability to fascinate as well as motivate. Author Kitty Kelley delved into her past to write the book Oprah, a biography on the talk-show star that is rocketing up international bestseller lists.
In the exclusive extract published in the latest issue of YOU (6 May) myths about Oprah’s poverty-stricken childhood are dispelled as people close to her reveal a different take on what they call the lies she told to endear herself to her worldwide audience.
In the editor’s letter, acting editor Linda Petersen writes:
It was late on Friday afternoon when reams of pages from the new Kitty Kelley book landed in my inbox. We’d been given first option to buy an extract and we had mere hours to scan the 500-odd pages and choose a section we thought readers would enjoy.
Assistant editor Nicola Whitfield and I started reading immediately. We’d read gossipy snippets from the book in newspapers but we soon realised there was much more to this biography than that. And there were the pictures of a young Oprah we’d never seen before – quite amazing.
Both of us earmarked exactly the same section we believed provides insight into the childhood and mind of this powerful woman we all love watching on TV.