The One & Only

The singular Oprah Winfrey on braving the elements, the way forward for women and why (for now at least) she doesn’t want to be president of the United States.

- Laura Brown

Oprah Winfrey is sitting on a couch in an LA photo studio, wearing a very flattering grey jersey jumpsuit and eating prawns (“No Weight Watchers points!”) from the catering table. The outfit is doubly fortunate because, as she explains wryly, “I’ve been wearing it for a week.” Fires are currently raging around Winfrey’s home in Montecito, California, so she can’t get to the property and is staying in a hotel.

This scene and our chat occurred just three weeks before Winfrey received the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes and delivered an instantly seminal speech that married the blights of racism and sexism with her uncommon vision. “I want all the girls watching here, now, to know that a new day is on the horizon!” she thundered. “And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women...and some pretty phenomenal men fighting hard to make sure they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say ‘Me too’ again.”

The speech left many speechless, immediately rousing a call for Winfrey to run for president, with #Oprah2020 trending on Twitter for days. A remark to the Los Angeles Times from her long-time partner, Stedman Graham (“It’s up to the people. She would absolutely do it”), only increased the fervour. But then, another thud back down to earth: the week after the Golden Globes saw a second blistering attack on Montecito by Mother Nature—torrential rain and flooding that resulted in the region drowning in mud (which Winfrey shared with the world on her Instagram). But when we talked, it was clear that whatever may be happening in the universe, hers or ours, Winfrey has a very Oprah way of reconciling it.

LAURA BROWN: How are you feeling?