It's Oprah's World

THE INSPIRING LEGEND ON LEGACY, TURNING 70, LETTING GO OF SHAME AND WHY THE NEW COLOR PURPLE IS A GLORIOUS 'FULL-CIRCLE MOMENT' 

- ELIZABETH LEONARD

Oprah Winfrey has reached stratospheric heights— cultural icon, movie star, media mogul, billionaire— but rarely lets a day pass without appreciating how unlikely her trajectory has been. She, more than anyone, knows she’s a statistical anomaly —a person who, through some extraordinary alchemy of timing, talent and tenacity, survived a childhood marked by abuse, poverty and hopelessness. Had Winfrey stayed in Milwaukee beyond her teenage years with her mother, Vernita Lee, she believes, the odds of survival would have been grim. “I would have been trapped inside my own body, my own weight, my own pain,” says Winfrey, sanguine and ever- thoughtful on a recent afternoon in Los Angeles. “I would have had an early death.”