Happy Birthday Oprah Winfrey, who turnes 61 today
She's a role model and a rule-breaker. She's as quirky as she is old-school. All the celebs adore her and she makes the world of movie stars and heads of states just a tiny bit less intimidating for the rest of us.
There are a lot of beautiful women in the movies and on TV. But to be frank, we reserve the blind and irrational love for those distant stars that do more than just wear stunning clothes. And if Oprah is not that unpredictable woman, the one who makes us laugh, who stands her ground and fights her corner and - just now and then - offers a small glimpse of a better world in which we might stand with her as equals, then who is?
The truth is we love Oprah Winfrey. We always did, and always will. We've been on Team Oprah ever since she hit TV screens for the first time back in 1986, because no celeb - hell, no human being - teaches you more about today's dog-eat-dog world, where no one has time or cause to crack a (real) smile, like this media-mogul-cum-talkshow-legend-cum-most-influential-black-woman-in-history.
Interesting facts about Oprah:
- She was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi to Vernon Winfrey and Vernita Lee.
- She was the first woman ever to own and produce her own talk show.
- Oprah went 25 years without ever missing a single day of work.
- She gave birth to a baby boy when she was 14. He was born two months premature and died two weeks later.
- She has kept a journal ever since she was 15.
- Her net worth is estimated at a staggering $1.1 billion.
- Oprah has been with life partner Stedman Graham since 1986.
