About Oprah Winfrey’s childhood, we know that the earliest part of it was spent with her single mother and her grandma, in an unstable and impoverished existence. It is hard to find information on whether she was overweight. From age nine she was sexually abused by two family members and an unrelated person, and at 14 gave birth to a child who died soon afterward. Then, she went to live with her father.
Although that situation was an improvement in many ways, she was still not okay, and said later, “The deepest pain I carried was believing I was unworthy.” The combination of shame, uncertainty, and a conviction of one’s own lack of value can certainly cause a person to find solace in food, if it is available.
From a medical source we learn that very young (11 to 14) pregnant patients are more apt to have obesity. It does not seem clear whether they start out that way, but this seems a likely possibility because the insecurity caused by being overweight can make them easy targets for predatory males. Another study concluded that teen births are associated with becoming overweight or obese later in life. Yet another affirms that…
Many teenage mothers struggle with proper nutrition during and after pregnancy. This can lead to long-term health problems, including obesity, diabetes, and osteoporosis.
We have said enough already about Oprah’s rise through the ranks into a stellar career, but this post intends to track the dark side of it, the period when she was doomed to participate in the general culture of fat-hating and fat-shaming. Her media career seemed in some ways to drift toward “specializing” in overweight, often with her own buxom figure as Exhibit A.
Probably no one else in history has so publicly shared the personal battle with obesity. The intensity of the fixation waxed and waned as other subjects captured her attention, and increased professional opportunities and personal initiatives took over. Somehow though, weight always seemed to remain a bedrock foundation of concern and obsession.
The Joan Rivers debacle
In an earlier post we mentioned the mindset of a fat-hating culture, and here is an ugly example of it. The year 1985 dumped Oprah right into a psychological river filled with rapids and sharp rocks: a TV appearance that was a striking example of the anti-fat trend, so extreme she felt compelled to bring it up almost 40 years later.
Oprah, who had just entered her 30s, appeared on The Tonight Show, with comedian Joan Rivers as guest host (and inquisitional prosecutor of heretics). The raucous Rivers did not set the precedent for speaking out against fat, but she definitely endorsed it. Clare Stephens for MamaMia.com transcribed the dialogue, which is edited here for length:
Rivers: So, how did you gain the weight?
Oprah: I ate a lot.
Rivers: You shouldn’t let that happen to you! You’re very pretty.
Oprah: (begins to say something)
Rivers: I don’t want to hear! You’re a pretty girl and you’re single, you must lose the weight.
Decades later, Oprah recalled how the audience laughed uneasily as Rivers wagged her index finger accusingly, while Oprah wanted nothing more than to crawl under her chair and hide. She reflected on the incredible rudeness of a host marring the national television debut of a younger woman by scolding her for her weight. And still, Oprah wasn’t off the hook. Rivers then mentioned a young singer who, according to her, was very chubby and needed to lose weight — and then went on to justify her own uncouth behavior by cranking the outrageousness up a notch:
You must tell a friend the truth! You must say “You’re still a pig, lose more weight.” That’s a friend.
Still stinging from exposure to this vicious mindset, a few months later Oprah, at almost 200 pounds, began hosting her own TV show in Chicago.
Your responses and feedback are welcome!
Source: “The Oprah Winfrey Success Story,” TheStrive.co, 01/27/23
Source: “Rising from the Ashes: The Story of Oprah Winfrey’s Transformation,” Substack.com, 01/26/25
Source: “Pregnancy before 16 increases long-term health complications for girls and babies,” Utswmed.org, 04/11/23
Source: “The Effects Of Teenage Pregnancy On Physical Health,” CatchNutrition.com, 11/04/24
Source: “In 1985 Joan Rivers asked Oprah a Question,” mamamia.com, 05/13/24
Image by aphrodite-in-nyc/Attribution 2.0 Generic