Oprah Winfrey.

When her talk show went independent, her staff consisted of four people including herself. By 2011, her empire had expanded to 464 employees.

She was sued by Texas cattlemen who claimed she defamed beef on her show. The trial forced her to relocate production to Amarillo, Texas; she was found not liable.

A DNA test on African American Lives revealed her genetic ancestry is 89% Sub-Saharan African, 8% Native American, and 3% East Asian. Her African roots include Kpelle, Bamileke, and Zambian.

She became the first African-American woman to own a cable network, OWN Oprah Winfrey Network.

In September 1997, it was announced she would receive $130 million for continuing her talk show through the 1999-2000 season.

In July 2007, her two-year-old golden retriever Gracie died after accidentally choking on another dog’s ball.

According to Forbes, her 2019 net worth is $2.6 billion. In 2003, she became the first African-American woman to make the billionaires list.

In April 2002, she and former personal trainer Bob Greene announced they were buying seven shoreline lots from the Getty Family Trust to build homes, including one on a 102-acre lot, with conservation priorities.

In 2005, after years of criticizing David Letterman’s show, she appeared on Late Show with David Letterman on December 1, 2005, to promote The Color Purple musical. They later appeared together in a 2007 Super Bowl ad.

In June 2004, she purchased a house at 3330 Radcliffe Ave., West Vancouver, BC, Canada, a 11,000-sq.-ft. waterfront property for Cdn $17 million US $13 million.

In 2009, she received an honorary doctorate from Duke University and was the commencement speaker.

In 1994, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, NY.

She is the daughter of Vernon Winfrey and Vernita Lee. She had two half-siblings: a half-brother who died of AIDS in 1988 and a half-sister Patricia Lee who died under mysterious circumstances in 2003. Her niece is Chrishaunda Lee Perez, and she walked her down the aisle in 2005.

Her teenage crushes were Beatle Paul McCartney and the Jackson 5’s Jackie Jackson.

On December 7, 2018, she received the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globe Awards, presented by Reese Witherspoon.

She ranked #1 on VH1’s 200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons in 2003, beating Superman and Elvis Presley.

In October 2006, she collapsed from heat exhaustion during a visit to her birthplace of Kosciusko, MS.

Since the inception of her Book Club segment on her show, an estimated 30 million books were sold as a direct result of the worldwide publicity.

Her partner since 1986 is Stedman Graham.

She was a guest at Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s wedding.

She was the last person to interview Liberace on television before his death on December 25, 1986.

She ranked first in Entertainment Weekly’s 1998 list of most powerful people in show business but dropped to sixth in 1999, still the highest-ranking performer, woman, and only African-American.

She had a cameo playing herself in Throw Momma from the Train 1987, foreshadowing the James Frey controversy.

In 2013, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.

In 1999, she and Stedman Graham taught a Dynamics of Leadership class at Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

In May 2007, she appeared on the Time 100 list for the fifth time, the only person to do so.

She was invited to the premiere of Interview with the Vampire but walked out due to gore, specifically the throat-slitting scene.

She received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, a special Academy Award, on November 12, 2011 in Los Angeles.

In October 1999, she received an honorary National Book Award for her influential contribution to reading and books.

Her broadcasting career began as a teenage intern at WVOL, an African-American radio station in Nashville in the late 1960s.

She was a recipient of the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors along with Jerry Herman, Paul McCartney, Merle Haggard, and Bill T. Jones.

On May 19, 2018, she attended the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, wearing a Stella McCartney pink dress and a Philip Treacy hat.

In 2006, she earned an estimated $260 million and gave $58,300,000 to charity, including the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy and Oprah’s Angel Network.

She was listed as one of 12 Promising New Actors of 1985 in John Willis’ Screen World, Vol. 37.

Her idol is Diana Ross, and her favorite album is Graceland by Paul Simon. She was interviewed about the album for the 2012 documentary Under African Skies.

Her personal chef until 2007 was Art Smith.

Before her talk show, she was a news anchor on WJZ-TV13 in Baltimore and co-hosted a local talk show called People Are Talking with Richard Sher.

In November 1999, she was awarded the 50th-anniversary medal by the National Book Foundation in New York City.