Additional Coverage:
- Oprah Winfrey shares her surprising guilty pleasure (usatoday.com)
Oprah Winfrey, a name recognized around the world, recently revealed some surprising details about the origins of her famous name during an interview on the podcast “Baby, This Is Keke Palmer.”
Host Keke Palmer expressed her astonishment upon learning that Oprah’s birth name is actually “Orpah,” a biblical name from the Book of Ruth (1:14). The 72-year-old media icon explained, “Nobody knew how to spell it.
On my birth certificate, it’s ‘Orpah,’ and then people started calling me Oprah. I didn’t learn until I was 20 that this isn’t really my name.”
This isn’t the first time Oprah has discussed her unique name. An old 1983 audition tape for the morning show “A.M.
Chicago” resurfaced in 2014, where she explained, “Oprah, spelled O-P-R-A-H, and if you notice, it’s ‘Harpo’ spelled backwards.” She clarified that her parents didn’t particularly care for Harpo Marx, the comedian.
The biblical name given by her Aunt Ida became “Oprah” simply because no one at home knew how to spell “Orpah.”
Beyond the name story, Oprah shared some of her personal pleasures and reflections on the podcast. Despite her vast media empire, she admitted her favorite guilty pleasure is “doing absolutely nothing.” She described herself as a dedicated homebody, often content to sit quietly with her thoughts-a trait that her longtime friend, fellow journalist Gayle King, often teases her about.
Winfrey painted a picture of her ideal day as a cozy, rainy day at home in Mississippi, complete with a fireplace, a dog, and a stack of books to dive into. While this sounds perfect to Oprah, she confessed that her friend Gayle finds it less exciting.
On a more serious note, Oprah opened up about her past romantic struggles. Though she now shares a steady partnership with Stedman Graham, her earlier relationships were difficult and often damaging. She reflected, “I was always attracted to somebody who was in one way or another trying to tell me I wasn’t good enough.”
Recalling a painful episode from her early 20s, Oprah described holding onto the bumper of her boyfriend’s car as he tried to leave during an argument. It was a moment of painful self-realization, recognizing patterns of sacrifice and loss of power she had witnessed in the women of her family. She said, “I saw the history of women in my family who’d allowed themselves to sacrifice their own power to men.”
Ultimately, Oprah views these past relationships as crucial life lessons. “All of the bad relationships were my best teachers,” she said.
“If you’re with somebody that’s not loving you the way you want to be loved or seeing you the way you want to be seen, that’s not on them. That’s on you.”
For Oprah, these experiences have been a way to confront and grow her own self-worth, guided by what she describes as messages from God or the universe.
This candid conversation offered a rare glimpse into the personal journey behind one of the most influential figures in media today.
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- Oprah Winfrey shares her surprising guilty pleasure (usatoday.com)