“Miracle of miracles" Oprah Has Discovered She Has a Half-Sister

Oprah was born to unmarried teenagers, Vernita Lee, a housemaid, Vernon Winfrey, who was in the Armed Forces.
During her childhood was raised at various times by her grandmother Hattie Mae Lee in Mississippi, her mother in Milwaukee, and her father in Nashville.
She was raped and abused by family friends, who have not been publicly  identified, while in Milwaukee.
She moved to Nashville permanently in 1968 to live with her father while she was secretly pregnant at 14. She gave birth to a son, who died when he was just a week old.
Oprah had two half-siblings on her mother's side - Jeffrey, who died in 1989, and Patricia, who passed away in 2003.

She met her secret half-sister - who, by coincidence, is also named Patricia - in November last year. 

 Winfrey sits down and chats to her half-sister in front of fans on her TV talk show

 Opra Winfrey with her mother Vernita

Oprah Winfrey  with her father Vernon   Oprah revealed live on her program today that her mother Vernita Lee gave up a child shortly after giving birth because she couldn’t afford to raise her. Oprah only learnt about the existence of Patricia, now 47, in November.

Patricia was placed into foster care before being adopted aged seven. The 56-year-old talk show host hailed the revelation the “miracle of miracles" and said the news left her "speechless".
Describing their first meeting as a “beloved moment”, she added: "It's not something I ever thought would happen to me.”

The TV star – who was living with her father Vernon Winfrey when Vernita had Patricia – made the decision to reveal her “bombshell family secret” herself because she feared it would be “exploited” if she didn’t.

Patricia – whose surname was not revealed – was then brought out to the audience, where she revealed she has two adult children, the first of whom she had when she was 17. Explaining how she found out Oprah was her half-sister, Patricia said she had initially seen Vernita discussing her three other children on a TV interview in 2007 and began to work out her place in family history after her son Andre went online and found the birthdates of his mother’s siblings.

Patricia said: "We realized that Oprah could be my sister." The single mother said she kept her connection to Oprah a secret because she didn’t want to cause a media circus. She added: "I did not want her hurt.”