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)

Tuesday 25 January

By Lis

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A self-absorbed woman who has donated MILLIONS to help the less fortunate. Maybe you should take some lessons from her!

Monday 24 January

By industryrequest

Hope she had a DNA test on this woman. And the sister has 2 adult children? No mention of a husband... typical, sounds like Oprah's family.

By Jesus

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Oprey don't know her daddy......Oprey don't know her sista.......
duh.......who woulda guessed?.......

Highest Rank Vote down Vote up Report this

Ms. Kelly???? You mean Ms. King?

By Donna

Who cares?????????????????????????????? Oprah I can not wait for your last show to air. I used to watch you but I can not stand you anymore. Havent watched you in about 5 years now.

By peace

I care. If you knew Jesus you would too!! I love Oprah and everyone else.

By wanda

IF YOU HATE HER SO MUCH WHAT IS THIS FOR!

By bublerocks

Wow...Earth shattering!!!

By MESV

I thought they all were brothers and sisters?

By YellowRose3218

I dont believe half of what I hear from Oprah.
I have never, meet, or seen anyone, that is so self absorbed, than Oprah Winfrey.
I am glad she will be going off the air soon.

you must believe something you keep listening. and as far as her going off air she will be flying her self to OWN that is Oprah Winfrey Network. I guess you will be following her there to listen to some more of what you don't believe. Get a life she does!

By lucitee

I stand corrected! I am sorry! Cindy and Industry pointed out my error in naming Oprahs friend as Ms. Kelly. It SHOULD have been Ms. King! As in Gayle King! Thanks, you two for pointing that out!
The basic message is still the same. Every "same sex" close relationship is NOT always sexual!

By pjmqone05

Low Ranked Vote down Vote up Report this

You know how Oprah knew it was her sister? She was fat then lost some weight, then gained it back and got a personal chef and lost it, then gained it back and lost it again, then gained it back and lost it again, then her dog died and she put like one hundred pounds on. No need for a DNA test its family

By Jack

OPRAHS new TV station, must not be doing as well as she expected, and she is needs some publicity..

By jackie

Ican not believe all the mean sprited people on this Oprah thing if you dont like her thats fine but why all the mean words

By What?!

Boy, Oprah loves to talk, talk, talk. Her white audience are all Democrats.

By Mike

How many more are out there?

By Tammy

Certainly hope Oprah got a DNA test done that proves this story!!

By Gail E. Cooper

It's wonderful that Oprah is acknowledging a long lost family member. Her mother, Vernita Lee probably had her own reasons for never discussing Patricia's existence with her. That was really her personal business and she probably didn't want to revisit a painful period in her life. Many people prefer to let what happened in the past remain there.

By Emfu

Lowest Rank Vote down Vote up Report this

I wonder if she'll do a segment on illegitimate children and broken families from the ghetto, as it applies to her life. This was the original foundation she built her show around, before she gained enough clout to have her cornbread white guests she so admires. Maybe she could do a piece on the man that is really her father. Bring him down a few notches and expose her true life the way she exposed others in the early days of her show. It won't matter now. She has her money. But she is ghetto for sure, and still looks like "willa" from around the way.

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