Oprah stunned her audience Monday when she revealed a life-changing family secret on her talk show. Before she made the revelation, Oprah said, “For the most part, my life has been an open book. I thought nothing could surprise me, but I was wrong.”
The secret which “shocked” Oprah “to the core” is that Oprah has a half-sister named Patricia who was given up for adoption by Oprah’s mother, Vernita Lee, in 1963. Lee was able to keep the pregnancy and adoption a secret from Oprah because Oprah was living with her father at the time.
Oprah found out about her half-sister last year after the 47-year-old Patricia began a search for her birth mother and was led to the billionaire businesswoman as her sister in 2007. Patricia had previously tried several times to contact her unknown birth mother but was told by the adoption agency that the mother did not want any contact from Patricia.
On The Oprah Winfrey Show, Patricia said that she first started thinking Oprah might be her long-lost sister when she saw an interview with Lee on TV. Lee just happened to talk about two of her other children which had previously died and the information Lee gave matched sibling information listed on the adoption papers in Patricia’s possession.
After Patricia watched Lee’s interview on TV, she found Oprah’s niece, and DNA tests confirmed the two were related.
Oprah wanted to share the news of her newly-found sister on her terms and on her own show, lest the other media tell a different story filled with half-truths and lies. Oprah was somehow able to keep the information a secret from the world until she was ready to share the jaw-dropping info.
Even Oprah’s dad, Vernon Winfrey, learned about the new addition to the family like the rest of us did: While watching the much-hyped show Monday! Vernon who is not Patricia’s father told RadarOnline.com “I’m pleased for Oprah that she discovered that she has a new half-sister and I would like to meet her too. I intend to call Oprah later this evening actually to try and catch-up with her about the exciting news.”
I don’t know about Oprah, but I still have not been able to wrap my head around this news!
