She’s been a cultural force for more than 30 years, so it might seem likeOprah Winfreywas always destined for greatness, from the first time she recited Bible verses at her Kosciusko, Mississippi church as a young girl. But her incredible journey from poor schoolgirl to billionaire mogul was more a winding road than a straight shot.
In the new issue, PEOPLE salutes extraordinaryWomen Changing the World—including Winfrey, theU.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, actressBrie Larsonand Swedish environmentalistGreta Thunberg. Their work has inspired millions, and their voices rose to the top not because they were always the loudest, but because their messages resonated.
As Winfrey reflects on the pivotal moments on her path, she says, “I say this to people all the time: ‘Nothing is waste.’ There is not a moment that you can have that can’t turn out to be useful later in life, and if you know that, life is like this huge, giant classroom.”
Moment No. 1: Moving from Milwaukee to Nashville as a young teen.
As a grade-schooler, Winfrey lived with her mother, Vernita Lee, in a run-down neighborhood of Milwaukee. By the time she was a young teenager, she had been sent to live with her father, Vernon Winfrey, in Nashville.
“When I was in Milwaukee, I was trapped in a world where I could see how dire it was,” she says. “Had I not gotten out of Milwaukee, nothing would have been the same. I do believe I would have been dead at 56. I believe I would have been 437 lbs. I believe I would have had diabetes. I would have had high blood pressure. I would have suffocated knowing that things could have been different.”
Ruven Afanador
“It was the KKK skinhead show [during which fights broke out repeatedly and one guest was kicked out for profanity] and then the show with a man, his wife . . . and his mistress,” Winfrey recalls. “At the time, the producers thought this was one of the greatest bookings we could ever get. We thought, ‘He’s agreed to come on with his girlfriend? This is unbelievable.’ Then there was a moment when the man says to his wife, ‘You know what? There’s nothing you can do about [the affair], because [my mistress] is pregnant.’ We were live and I didn’t know he was going to tell her, nor did the producers know.”
“It’s one of my greatest shames, but a shameful act that allowed me to make the shift, because I go, ‘Never again will I do that to somebody,'” she says. “If I hadn’t, I would have been out of television much sooner.”
For the rest of the five moments that changed Winfrey’s life — including what she says about her relationship with Stedman Graham — pick up the new issue of PEOPLE!
source: people.com
