I Had To Tell This Woman's Story

TV legend Oprah Winfrey on how Henrietta Lacks’ death changed medicine and inspired her new drama…

In 1951, in the US city of Baltimore, cells were taken from hospital patient Henrietta Lacks, a 31-year old woman dying from cervical cancer. Those cells would play a crucial part in creating the polio vaccine, but Henrietta was unaware of her role in the medical research, and her contribution remained unrecognised for decades.

That’s the story of Sky Atlantic’s The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks, adapted from the bestseller by writer Rebecca Skloot (Damages star Rose Byrne in the drama) and told through the eyes of Henrietta’s daughter, Deborah, played by Oprah Winfrey.

Here, Oprah, 63, reveals why the story is so important and reveals her fears about returning to acting…

When did you first hear about the story of Henrietta Lacks?

The story came to me through someone in my office. I read the book and I thought, ‘How is it that I am a black woman and I don’t know this story?’ I could not believe that I, as an African-American student of this culture, had never heard of her. And if I hadn’t heard about her, I was sure there would be many other people who hadn’t either. How could that be?