Oprah lied about poverty, sex abuse, tell-all book claims
By JEREMY OLSHAN
Last Updated: 4:40 PM, April 12, 2010
Oprah Winfrey embellished her poor upbringing and made up stories about sexual abuse to boost her ratings, her relatives say in Kitty Kelley’s new biography.
Although Winfrey claims she never had any new dresses or dolls, and had to adopt two cockroaches as pets growing up in rural Mississippi, her cousin contends she was actually relatively “spoiled” as a little girl.
“Where Oprah got that nonsense about growing up in filth and roaches I have no idea,” Katherine Carr Esters said. “I’ve confronted her and asked, ‘why do you tell such lies?’
Oprah told me ‘that’s what people want to hear. The truth is boring.’”