Biographer: Oprah’s ‘family secret’ is half-sister she never met before

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey is calling it “the miracle of all miracles” and “news that literally shook me to my core.” On Monday’s show, according to her unauthorized biographer, the world will be introduced to the half-sister Oprah never knew she had.

Since last week, Oprah has been teasing viewers with the promise of revealing “a hidden family secret” that will top any reunion she has presented over the past 25 years on the air. She and her staff have been keeping the revelation tightly guarded. In promos for the show, Oprah says:

“I thought I’d seen it all. But this, my friends, is the miracle of all miracles. I was given some news that literally shook me to my core. This time, I’m the one being reunited. Only a handful of people in my life know about this. I’ve been keeping a family secret for months, and you’re going to hear it straight from me.”

Caption: 

Kitty Kelley

Kitty Kelley (pictured left), the famed celebrity biographer who wrote the definitive story of Oprah’s life and career last year, told me Saturday that the secret is the half-sister who was placed for adoption as a baby. Citing an “inside family source,” Kelley said Winfrey’s mother, Vernita Lee, gave birth to the daughter named Bunny, whom she “gave away shortly after she was born because she couldn’t afford to take care of her.” Bunny, who is now a grandmother, will appear with Oprah on Monday’s show. (Correction: “Bunny” is the nickname of the mother, Vernita Lee — not the daughter, Patricia. I misunderstood Kitty Kelley when she made the original reference to me.)

Oprah was born on Jan. 29, 1954, in Kosciusko, Miss., to Lee and Vernon Winfrey, who were unmarried teenagers. Lee had three children but never married, according to reports.

Though exhaustively researched and massive in scope, Kelley’s Oprah: A Biography proved less successful than some of her other bestsellers in part because no one in Oprah’s inner circle would deliver the goods and because other media outlets didn’t want to offend Oprah by helping Kelley promote the book. Once Oprah publicly denounced it as “a so-called biography,” Kelley acknowledged, sales tanked even among “Opraholics” and “Winfreaks.”

The paperback edition of the book was published last week.

Follow up: Kitty Kelley was right. On her show Monday, Oprah introduced her long-lost half-sister to the world and said she was impressed that the 47-year-old Patricia had kept the story secret. “She never once thought to go to the press,” Oprah said. “She never once thought to sell this story.”