Oprah Winfrey Reveals Surprise Half-Sister

By PopEater Staff Posted Jan 24th 2011 10:14AM

Oprah Winfrey's big family secret? The talk-show queen announced on 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' Monday that she has discovered a half-sister, named Patricia, who was secretly given up for adoption in 1963. Patricia, who lives in Milwaukee, said that she discovered Oprah was her half-sister while searching for her birth mother in 2007. She spent the next three years trying to contact Winfrey with the news and finally reached her late last year. They met on Thanksgiving Day.

Winfrey was 9 and living with her father, Vernon Winfrey, in 1963 and said she had no idea her mother, Vernita Lee, was even pregnant. According to Winfrey, her mother could not afford to keep Patricia.

In a confusing twist, Winfrey's previously known half-sister, who passed away in 2003, was also named Patricia and lived in Milwaukee. Oprah said that her mom did not name the daughter she gave away and that it was just a coincidence.

Patricia is believed to be 48 and has two adult children, a son and a daughter, meaning Winfrey has a niece and nephew to add to the family as well. Patricia said that she continued her quest to contact Winfrey so her children could know their aunt.

Winfrey praised her half-sister for not going to the press with the story.

It's been a revelatory year for Oprah Winfrey, who, as her legendary talk show winds down its 25th and final year on the air, has stepped out of her comfort zone to address a number of rumors about herself, including talk that her friendship with Gayle King is actually a romantic relationship and her thoughts of suicide as a teenager after she learned of an unwanted pregnancy.

"I was given some news that literally shook me to my core. This time, I'm the one being reunited," Winfrey said in advertisements for today's episode of 'Oprah.' "I was keeping a family secret for months, and on Monday you're going to hear it straight from me."

Earlier Monday, BlackVoices.com reported that Winfrey learned sometime around Thanksgiving of last year that her mother had another daughter. Winfrey, 56, believed for years that she was her parents' only surviving child after her two younger siblings, Jeffrey and Patricia, passed away.

As soon as Winfrey announced that she would reveal "news that literally shook me to my core" about "a family secret," the Internet lit up with speculation. "There has been speculation in the past that Vernon Winfrey is not her biological father," In Touch Weekly Senior Editor Amy Palmer told CBS News, "so this is something people are saying it could be."

Others -- including Kitty Kelley, who famously wrote an unauthorized biography of Winfrey last year -- had been correctly claiming that Winfrey would reveal a long-lost family member.

Tags: oprah winfrey

Comments

(69)

Monday 24 January

By valeskas

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Oprah, all that hype, because that is life.

By freedkalashnikov

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Cursed be the ground for our sake. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for us. For out of the ground we were taken, for the dust we are... and to the dust we shall return

By bubblepuppy714

YAWN

By Sue

I agree! This is what all the hype was about over the last few days??

By cc

Just because oprah has a ton of money she thinks she walks on water...shes such a narcissist...
thank goodness this is her last season!!!!

Why would that news be kept secret all these years, doesnt make sense.. I wonder what the half sister thinks and I wonder if she looks like Oprah... Oprah is probably worried she might want money lol
Interesting...

Tuesday 25 January

By Ohno She Dint

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Well now we know why the secret was kept 47 yrs by Vernita, Oprah's elderly and falling apart mother. Vernita had her first kid (Oprah) unmarried, then had 2 more kids (now both deceased) with 1 or 2 other, different fathers than her first kid...and then while on welfare someone got her pregnant in 63 for another kid...yet another father....so with all these baby daddies...and Vernita on welfare while her first kid (Oprah) went to live with her father.....so SHAME...Oprah even said it on her show trying to explain why her mother had so very few words on the admission of this long lost Patricia who's now 47 (and cute, nice nice lady, I like this Patricia). Ok she is shameful after all these years....I get it, so would I if I had 4 kids and at least 3 different fathers, never wed, none were a long term relationship of love....that is shameful....doubt Vernita can let it go at this point, she is really nearing her end and falling apart...minor sroke I hear.

The bigger question to me is...Hey Vernita? Who's the father of this 47 yr old Patricia?? Does Vernita even have a clue who the father could be? Maybe a list of dudes? I hated that the Oprah show probabably deliberately didn't mention anything about the possible father...well fine, I would have liked to know if Vernita even has a hint on which man it could be, Patricia could use that since old Vernita won't have that emotional bond for her......At least the Oprah show could've said that patricia knows or doesn't know anything about dad and how and if she can find him....my money is on Vernita has no idea who the father could be.

By gposner29

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Well I guess a half sister is better than no sister...
There are hundreds if not thousands of Oprah Winfrey's out there..The media had to annoint one for countless reasons...appeasement being right up there..This particular Oprah won the lottery. That said, she has done well and did her best to ride the fence....

By lucitee

In MY opinion, there is NOTHING sexual about Oprahs relationship with Ms. Kelly! I had a VERY BEST FRIEND growing up and into adulthood! We slept together, shared secrets, cried and laughed together! She was my "MAINSTAY" in times of triumph and tragedy.
To suggest that this "VERY BEST FRIEND" of Oprah's is a ROMANCE is
demeaning to ALL of us who has, has had, a "TREASURED FEMALE FRIEND"!

By Cindy Stauffer

What the heck are you talking about? The Miss Kelley referred to in the story is a writer, Oprah's best friend is named Gayle King

By Lis

I agree, I have had the same best friend since I was 5 years old. 35 years later, we still talk every day and are raising our children as friends. We both count our blessings every day to know that someone has our backs. Shame on people who question this bond.
“Jealousy is nothing more than a fear of abandonment”
I feel sorry for such people.

By pjmqone05

Hey Oprah build a bridge and get over yourself. Its no suprise that you have a half sister the real question is how many more do you have?

By shawanda

That's why she is a private person because of people like you guys. she did state in her talk show that she wanted to share her family secret so that the media would not take it and fly with it. She wanted America to hear it from her mouth, now that she has revealed her family secret don't make it out to be a joke because you just may have some family secrets of your own that you don't know about. And as far as her mother back in the day it was much different then it is now. Now anything goes back then every thing was totally different.I am just happy that patricia did everything to make the transition as respectful as she could. At the end of the day it's all about FAMILY!

By Beth

Oprah is so insulated that it took this woman 3 years to contact her? I will never understand this nationwide obsession with Oprah.

By dee

Well,well,just in time for her new show,what a joke!!

By notoobamaagenda

Oprah is an Obama Troll which shows her true side as Hussein, Liar in Chief, is as corrupt, crooked, and con artist as they get....... Oprah's new found half sister is just for RATINGS.

By judy

While I agree about the ratings, and I have never understood what this country sees in Oprah, I do get a little tired of politics being brought into everything. If you want to make your remarks, go to a political forum.

Wednesday 26 January

By Pat

Amen to you!! All it is a way to raise Ratings!! Remember she is a ACTRESS!!.. Biggest joke on T V!

By Granny

Someone please make this woman go away. She is so self-absorbed! If there is not some type of news about her on a weekly basis she goes through withdrawals. Can't stand her, never could. I feel sorry for all of those people out there that don't have a life and think that everything this woman says and does is gospel. YUK!

By joy

It is so sad when you say you can't stand someone and you don't even know them. What you need is Jesus and you will know how to love all people.

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