As the ‘Queen of Media’ prepares to shut down her unsurpassable talk show this year, Oprah Winfrey has set off fireworks on one show after another. But earlier today, Winfrey revealed a family secret that had been hidden beneath the surface for years — Oprah has a half sister with whom she had never known of before late last year.
Oprah and Patricia were publicly reunited on Monday’s show. Oprah showed video of her and her partner, Steadman Graham, arriving at her mother’s home in Milwaukee to meet Patricia for the first time on Thanksgiving Day last year.
This is regretfully, not an uncommon occurrence in black America. In fact, this is in part why the Temptations classic “Papa was a Rolling Stone” was penned in the first place, and why so many identified with the hit song. Wandering libidos have often produced unexpected offspring, which explains why so many families in America contain siblings of differing parentage.
Patricia tried futilely to track down Lee. She did manage to track down Oprah’s niece, though, and DNA tests confirmed that they were related. When everything was confirmed that Oprah indeed had a sister she never knew, she confronted her mother, who confirmed that Patricia was indeed her half sister. — terry shropshire
