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January 24, 2011, 10:45 AM ET
.Oprah Reveals She Has Half Sister.
In a revelation worthy of her own show, Oprah Winfrey said on the air Monday that she has a half-sister. The woman, identified as Patricia, was born in Milwaukee in 1963 and given up for adoption.
As an adult working two jobs to raise two children on her own, Patricia began looking for her birth mother in 2007.
Using a combination of official records and online sleuthing, Patricia and her children eventually unraveled the truth. “We realized that Oprah could be my sister,” Patricia said. But what to do?
She eventually met with Oprah’s niece, Alisha Hayes, who runs a restaurant called Pat’s Ribs Place in Milwaukee. Patricia bore a striking resemblance to Alisha’s mother, Pat, whose pictures were scattered around the restaurant’s walls.
Alisha’s husband, Tydus, was shocked by the resemblance. “It was the way she spoke, it was the way she moved her hands,” he said. “Yeah, I’m a marine but I couldn’t help it, I just bust out crying.”
A DNA test confirmed that they were related.
Patricia tried three times to reach Vernita Lee, Oprah’s mother, but Bernita refused to talk to her.
Patricia tried to keep the news quiet, fearing a media frenzy. She said she was worried about hurting Oprah, so she kept the secret.
Eventually, a family member told Ms. Winfrey just before she was to go on the air for a show in late October.
“I was like, what?” she said.
She called her mother, who reluctantly confirmed the truth.
On Thanksgiving day, the two sisters met for the first time at Bernita’s home in Milwaukee.
“It was a beloved moment,” Ms. Winfrey said.
Calling it a “miracle of miracles,” Oprah Winfrey revealed that she has a half sister on her program Monday. Winfrey learned around Thanksgiving. The talk show host had promised viewers that she’d reveal a family secret.
Winfrey’s half-sister, Patricia, was born in Milwaukee in 1963. Winfrey is finishing up the final season of her long-running talk show and has been featuring a number of attention-grabbing episodes. She recently launched a channel, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).
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