skip to nav

begrudges Oprah's multi-million-dollar advance. A friend in Washington, normally prone to envy, said: "When I first read about Bill Clinton's advance, I thought 'Wow, I could use some real cash to fix up my beach-hut...' But when I heard Oprah got more, I thought, 'That seems right. She's got more influence than the President.'"

Oprah's come a long way since her first incarnation as confessional chat-show host in the 1980s, exposing hurts and family rows of the "My Mother Stole My Boyfriend" variety.

She was always different from her rivals - Jerry Springer and, later, Sally Jesse Raphael. She has warmth and soul. And, as she has matured, she has stunned her audience by breaching America's greatest social taboos - gay sex, racism, incest, even Iraq - with frankness and honesty.

She has gained Americans' trust - and so became a model for Clinton (he says he learned to walk into the crowd from her). She's no ordinary PC chat-show host - she's the greatest social reformer since Eleanor Roosevelt.

FIRST POSTED MAY 23, 2006
Oprah’s the greatest social reformer since Eleanor Roosevelt

A DROP IN THE OCEAN

The book advance is not going to make much of an impression on Oprah's bank account...

Wealth
Now 52, she is the first black woman billionaire in history. She became a mere millionaire at the age of 32 when her Chicago-based talk show went national. Ten years later, worth $340m, she replaced Bill Cosby as the only African-American on the Forbes 400. By 2006, her wealth was calculated at $1.4 billion.

Philanthropy
She gives more of her own money to charity than any other showbiz celebrity in America. Despite being the 235th richest American in 2005, she was the 32nd most philanthropic.

Home
When she is not working in Chicago, she lives with her partner, businessman Stedman Graham, on a 42-acre estate at Montecito, California, called The Promised Land.

The James Frey memoir scandal

Toni Morrison tops NYT list

Harvard plagiarists’ book withdrawn
go back...page 2 of 2