Meet Oprah Winfrey's Half-Sister Patricia
Oprah Winfrey and sister Patricia
Reunion: Winfrey sits down and chats to her half-sister in front of fans on her TV talk show
She was the family secret that Oprah Winfrey called "one of the greatest surprises" of her life.
But on Monday's Oprah Winfrey Show, Patricia, the media mogul's half-sister, stepped forward in a very public way.
During the show, Winfrey revealed that she learned she had a sister last October, saying the discovery "left me speechless."
She was 9-years-old and living with her father in Tennessee when her mother, Vernita Lee, became pregnant with a daughter, Patricia, who was given up for adoption. Born in 1963 in Milwaukee, Patricia would later live in a series of foster homes until the age of 7. She was then adopted, but said her childhood was "difficult."
Tracing her roots took years of perseverance but Patricia finally discovered her mother – and her half-sister.
"I received this big old package of information in the mail," Patricia said during Monday's interview. "And it has all of my birth information in it. I was like, 'Oh my God. I have a family.' "
**************************************
OPRAH'S FAMILY HISTORY
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.
