Oprah Gail Winfrey was born on 29th January 1954 to an unmarried teenage mother, Vernita Lee, in Mississippi. She was only 19 at the time of the birth. It is stated that Oprah’s conception was the result of ‘a single sexual encounter and the couple broke up not long after’.
During Oprah’s first six years of life she lived with her grandmother in rural poverty, while her mother went in search of work in order to cope with the financial stress of raising a child. Oprah says she remembered vividly that she often wore dresses made of potato sacks due to the extremity of the poverty and was frequently bullied by other children. This would have had a great impact on Oprah’s development as she most likely would have not received nutritious food
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This allows me to interpret that she would have had trust issues with many of the people around her and would have felt isolated, depressed and scared. Moreover, in her later adolescent years Oprah became largely involved with older boys and men who would use her and beat her. I can only surmise that this was due to the lack of self-respect she had for herself as a result of the sexual abuse. When she was 24 she told her family what had happened but they refused to believe her.
At the age of 13 Oprah could no longer stand the sexual abuse at home so ran away. A year later she became pregnant, sadly her son died in her arms shortly after birth. Oprah once mentioned that from that moment she had chosen not to be a mother because she had not been mothered well. This shows Oprah clearly admitting that the way she was brought up and the things she went through had an extensive impact on her life.
After losing her son Oprah returned home to her mother but began to steal money in order to maintain the very few friendships she had. The relationship between her mother and herself broke down to the point where her mother sent her away to live with her