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 DUSTY

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Why did she wait so long to confront oprah...I bet Oprah paid her well to kep her mouth shut and not running to the media.......Im sure the 1/2 sister needed money

By enzo

cha ching. wonder if maybe she'll let go of some of that green now. Or maybe she will ask her zombie followers to contribute and she will give it away and take all the charitable credit.

By ehxnyer

DOUBLE YAWN And we are supposed to care about this because....... Is she going to share her wealth with her new sister and neice and nephew? Hmmmmmm

By Ebba

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I'm happy for Oprah. Her new sister looked like she was going 2 explode she was so happy. Why so much hate? People are jealous and cannot stand the fact that a black woman is so powerful and rich. If you don't like her turn the channel.

Wednesday 26 January

By Pat

And I do turn the channel OFF!! Biggest fake on TV!!

Friday 28 January

Pat, why so much hate? Did ya not get tickets to her show? Did you write and ask her for money and she said no? Did she steal your man? GET OVER YOURSELF.

By terryhighlander

REALLY I BET SHE HAS ABOUT 8 SISTER'S AND BROTHER'S THAT SHE DOES NOT KNOW ABOUT. IT IS THE BLACK WAY, THE MORE WE HAVE THE MORE WE GET, I MEAN THEM;BLACK'S, SO KEEP LOOKING I AM SURE THERE ARE MORE

Tuesday 25 January

By Tell It Like It Is

And the rest of the world means you. Do us all a favor. Take the high road...off the planet. Please.

By wanda

I have to say one thing people needs to stop hating on Ms.Oprah I am almost sure that she don't give a dam about what you think. Oprah got so much money that she can buy all the negative thoughts you guys have and turn them into positives. OH! that is the problem if she did not have all the money she has you would't give a dam about her.

Monday 14 February

By deebee

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Haters,
if she were around the corner, you'd all go running towards her with your hands wide open begging for something. She's powerful and generous. And she has no control over the number of sisters or brothers that she might have. She beat the odds!! Oprah, you go girl...and what a blessing to discover your sister. I only wish that most of you experieince Oprah's good fortune and if you do, use it constructively, as she has done.

By minnie

Apparently, Oprah's mother got around A LOT!!! In my opinion, she did the woman a favor when she gave her up!

By nellis

There is so much jealousy on this board. Go Oprah go. You have the Midas touch.

terryhighlander, when you went to school, did you ride a big bus or a little bus?

By Ohno She Dint

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. No offense to Oprah 9I still love her but she hyped this thing for ratings, not just so she could tell the story and not the media.....a bit obvious) and no offense or disrespect to any of Oprah's family, even that poor lost soul, Vernita. She probably had a disastrous few decades raising kids alone and without any financial means ....and God forbid any oof these impregnators paid her any child support...did they know? Peace to y'all.

By Claudia

Don't be haters. Don't be jealous! Oprah is just another person trying to make it in this world. She has worked hard to get where she is. None of you could say that you wouldn't do the same if given the opportunity. If you don't like her, don't watch her. Oprah has done a lot of good for a lot of people. She has the right to spend her money any way she wants to. She also has the right to her political views. So let's live our own lives and let others do the same.

By jb007

really its fascinating.....

By micheal

I do not hate Oprah, I am just not fooled by her phoney way of lureing in people to think she actually gives a crap. She is such a narcisstic loaf of bologna.Did she back Obama for his political knowledge, or the color of his skin? I think the latter and you do too.

By Budd

Oprah's mom was a HO.........

By WILD BILL

MY QUESTION IS THIS: HOW MANY MORE DOES SHE HAVE?

By cathyc13211

It is no surprise at all. She knew she had a sister...her mother told her. She probably has more than one.

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