A revelatory account of America's most famous chat-show host, which charts her meteoric rise to international stardom and explores the painful and well-publicized crises of her personal life. Oprah Winfrey is America's wealthiest and most famous black woman, but her present-day success is at odds with her humble beginnings. Born illegitimate and virtually abandoned as a child, Oprah grew up in a tiny ghetto apartment, where, having een sexually abused, she embarked on wild and promiscuous teenage years. Yet, burning with ambition and determination, she landed her first job with a radio station while she was still in high school, won several beauty contests and, by the age of nineteen, was hired by a television station. This book details Oprah's contemplation of suicide, her teenage miscarriages, the trauma of her public battle with dieting and the anguish of her indecision over marriage, as well as the success of her talk show and its social implications. Now fully updated to include Oprah's ups and downs over the past five years including the huge success of her bookclub, which can create a bestseller in one show, and her foray into cyberspace with the founding of the women's website Oxygen. Prize-winning journalist George Mair has interviewed Oprah's friends, family, colleauges and critics to present this extraordinary account of her struggles and success.