Friday, 24 December 2010

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Oprah Winfrey: We were too poor for Christmas presents

The chat show queen wasn't always so well off

Oprah Winfrey's family had no money for gifts when she was a child

Oprah Winfrey's single mother was so poor when she was a child, there was no spare cash to buy Christmas presents.

Living with her mum and two half-siblings in Milwaukee on welfare, 12-year-old Oprah was embarrassed about her family's poverty.

'I remember feeling sad, but really feeling like, what will my
story be tomorrow, when everybody is outside with their toys?' she recalls.

But then three nuns appeared with gifts - including a doll for Oprah.

'I remember being relieved, but also feeling that I mattered enough for these nuns - whom I didn't know - that they had remembered me,' she tells The Guardian Weekend.

'I wasn't forgotten.'

Lucy Halfhead