Oprah Winfrey's life in pictures: From her start in TV to worldwide icon
As Oprah Winfrey celebrates her 70th birthday, we take a look at the icon's life in pictures so far.
From a television host breaking barriers to Oscar nominee, media mogul and Hollywood producer, she's achieved a whole lot already.
Keep going to see all the big moments in photos.
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After years of abuse, Oprah went to live with her father, Vernon Winfrey, around the age of 13.
After hiding her pregnancy from him, she has said the stress of having to tell her father of the pregnancy sent her into labour.
"I delivered that child that day, and the child never left the hospital. It died," Oprah told Barbara Walters in an interview decades later.
But Oprah credits her father with saving her and supporting and encouraging her in the aftermath of her loss.
"This is your second chance. You should make good on it," Oprah said her dad told her.
"When my father took me in, it changed the course of my life," she added.
"He saved me."
After Oprah won the Miss Black Tennessee beauty pageant in 1971, she captured the attention of a local radio station, which hired her as a part-time newsreader - beginning her journey to the media mogul we know today.
This headshot of Oprah is from 1975, when she made a move over to TV news.
Oprah was both the youngest news anchor and the first black female news anchor on Nashville station WLAC-TV.
The following year, Oprah moved to Baltimore in Maryland, where she co-anchored the 6pm news bulletin.
By 1978 (pictured), she became co-host of the local talk show People Are Talking in Baltimore and began her move away from the news desk and into talk show territory.
In 1984, Oprah moved again and began hosting AM Chicago, the show that would eventually become The Oprah Winfrey Show.
The Oprah Winfrey Show launched in September 1986.
Oprah very quickly became a syndicated show and was the number-one daytime talk show in America.
The show earned its first Emmy Award a year after it's debut.
The 1987 trophy (pictured) was the first of 18 Emmys the presenter has won over the years.
Also in 1987, Oprah was spotted with Steadman Graham publicly for the first time.
The pair began dating in 1986 after the TV personality met the businessman at a charity event.
They never married (though, got engaged in 1992) and are still together 37 years later - which is a rarity in Hollywood.
Graham, who Oprah calls "my rock", has happily kept out of the spotlight but accompanies his fiancée on big public outings and features occasionally on her social media.
During the 2020 pandemic lockdowns, the longtime couple were just like the rest of us - doing puzzles while stuck at home.
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