Oprah Winfrey Net Worth
What is Oprah Winfrey’s net worth?
Oprah Winfrey is an American media mogul, TV presenter and writer. Oprah’s net worth is 3.5 billion U.S. dollars. Today, due to her lucrative and diverse media empire, her annual revenue is approximately US$315 million.
early life
Oprah Winfrey emerged from poverty, abuse and prejudice to become one of the most influential people on the planet. She was born in Orpah Gail Winfrey on January 29, 1954. This is not a spelling error. Her name is “Orba”, which is a reference to a biblical character in the Book of Ruth. As a baby, people often misread the name as “Oprah”, but eventually got stuck. She was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Her mother Vernita Lee is an unmarried girl maid. When Oprah was born, her biological father, Vernon Winfrey, served in the military. He eventually served as a barber, coal miner and city councillor. There are rumors that her biological father may be another man named Noah Robinson.
When Oprah was a baby, Oprah and her mother moved in with her grandmother. The family lived in extreme poverty, and the famous Oprah was forced to wear potato bags as a school uniform. So she really went from being impoverished to being rich.
At the age of six, Oprah and her mother moved to Milwaukee, where her mother found a job as a maid. During this period, Oprah’s mother gave birth to a second daughter named Patricia. In 2003, Patricia died of cocaine abuse at the age of 43. Another half sibling, Jeffrey, the brother of his father Vernon, died of AIDS in 1989.
When Oprah was 12 years old, she was sent to Nashville to live with her father Vernon. At the age of 13, she ran away from home to escape the abuse suffered there. At the age of 14, she was pregnant with a son who was born prematurely and died.
She initially attended Lincoln High School in Milwaukee, but after performing well in a special course, she was transferred to a wealthy suburban school called Nicolet High School. After encountering some troubles, she returned to Nashville. At East Nashville High School, she began to bloom. At the age of 17, Oprah won the Tennessee black beauty pageant, which allowed her to serve as a news anchor for a local black radio station called WVOL.
She received a scholarship from Tennessee State University, where she studied communication. At the age of 19, Oprah left school to work full-time in the media.
Media career
Oprah became the first black female news anchor on WLAC-TV in Nashville. She is also the youngest anchor in the history of the station. When she was 22, she was hired by a radio station in Baltimore called WJZ to co-host the six o’clock news, a coveted position.
In August 1978, she started co-hosting a talk show called People Are Talking. By 1980, she defeated Phil Donahue of the National Union in the Baltimore local market. At the end of the Baltimore campaign, her annual income was $220,000, which is the same as today’s $560,000 after adjusting for inflation.
In 1984, ABC recognized her potential and provided Oprah with her own 30-minute morning talk show in Chicago, produced by a company called King World Productions.Kings World is also the production studio behind Danger and The wheel of fate. This job comes with a four-year contract worth $1 million. After adjusting for inflation, US$250,000 per year was the same as today’s US$600,000.
Oprah Winfrey Show and United Empire
Within a few months of the Chicago premiere date on January 2, 1984, Oprah brought the ratings from the last to Chicago’s highest-rated talk show, replacing Phil Donahue. On September 8, 1986, the program was renamed Oprah Winfrey Show, Broadcast across the country, unite, and expand to a full hour. At first, the show only focused on women’s issues, but later expanded to topics such as health, spirituality, social issues, and charity.
Also within a few months after the first broadcast, Oprah began to doubt the $1 million contract. Chicago TV personality Roger Albert told Oprah to meet with his agent Jeffrey Jacobs. In addition to representing Ebert and his co-host Gene Siskel, Jeffrey also represents Bill Cosby.
Jacobs was quick to point out that with the joint show, Oprah is unlikely to make an extra dollar. He was more blunt than that and told Oprah:
“This is a slave contract. Slaves work for fixed dollars. They are willing to pin their hopes on a national performance. This contract lasts for 4 years and totals US$1 million, working hard to make you a well-paid slave. “
Jacobs explained how Siskel and Ebert had part of their show syndication, and how Bill Cosby had part of his show syndication.
How Oprah became a billionaire
Oprah fired her agent and sent Jeffrey Jacobs back to King World/ABC to reach a new agreement. Wang Jie refused to renegotiate. This would be a very accidental rejection. Kings World did not give up a small number of show joint points, but opened the door to the accidental establishment of an empire for Jeffrey Jacobs and Oprah.
Although the negotiations were cold, Jeffrey and Oprah went out on their own to establish HARPO Productions.
King Realm is in a difficult situation. At the time, Oprah attracted a record number of spectators in Chicago, and the national coalition looked like a slam dunk. They should give in and let Oprah take a share. This will cost them millions each year.
In the end, King World returned to the negotiating table, but now Oprah no longer seeks to cut back. The executives of King World were shocked when they learned that she planned to make the show herself. She and Jeffrey will pay all the production costs of the show through HARPO Studios’ HARPO Productions, and then they will pay a fixed fee to King World to unite the show nationwide. King World is now a salaried employee.
Oprah owns 90% of HARPO. Jeffrey owns 10%.
Next, Oprah and Jeffrey negotiated a larger overall deal with ABC, which included film production, magazines, books, and most importantly, the right to launch other TV shows under her production umbrella. All production of these shows will be conducted on her 3.5-acre HARPO campus.
That’s not all.
Oprah and Jeffrey even negotiated the ownership of King World Productions itself. Thanks to this deal, Oprah can make money from every show produced by King World, including Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune.
In 1999, CBS acquired King World for $2.5 billion in stock. After the acquisition, Oprah owns 1% of all shares in CBS. Through a deal with ABC in the mid-1990s, she eventually owns most of Disney’s stock.
Although her 1980s talk show contemporaries such as Sally Jesse Raphael, Phil Donahue and Jerry Springer will continue to earn tens of millions of dollars through traditional contracts, but Austria Pula will continue to earn billions of dollars.
| Oprah Net Worth Milestone | |
| year | net worth |
| 1985 | 500,000 USD |
| in 1989 | 1,000,000 USD |
| the year 1995 | $500 million |
| 2000’s | 1,000,000,000 USD |
| 2007 | USD 2,000,000,000 |
| Year 2014 | USD 3,000,000,000 |
| 2019 year | USD 3,100,000,000 |
| 2020 year | 3,500,000,000 USD |
When Oprah became a billionaire for the first time in 1999/2000, she became the first black female billionaire in the United States. Around this time, she made her own shows and Dr. Phil and Rachel Ray’s shows earning $300 million a year.
At the time of writing, Oprah is the fourth richest celebrity on the planet. The only billionaire celebrities who beat her were Kanye West ($6.6 billion), Steven Spielberg ($7.5 billion) and George Lucas ($10 billion).
Oprah Winfrey is the richest woman from scratch in the United States.
GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP via Getty Images
Endorsements and other items
Since 2015, Oprah has been a board member of Weight Watchers. When she was brought to the company, she received equity worth 43.5 million U.S. dollars. The value of this share has exceeded 400 million U.S. dollars. In 2019, she signed a multi-year agreement with Apple to produce shows for the tech giant.
As an actress, Oprah has starred in many major movies, including 1985’s “Purple”, 1998’s “Favorite”, 2013’s “Steward” and 2014’s “Selma”.
She has produced dozens of TV shows, documentaries and miniseries.
At the time of writing, Oprah has received two Oscar nominations, one for “Purple” for Best Supporting Actress and the other for “Selma” for Best Picture Producer. In 2011, she won the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Academy Award.
Oprah has won 18 daytime Emmys (26 nominations in total), one Golden Globe, two Primetime Emmys and one Tony Award.
Oprah Real Estate Portfolio
Oprah owns hundreds of acres (possibly more than 1,000 acres) of real estate in the United States, with a minimum value of US$200 million.
Chicago: From 1985 to 2015, Oprah’s main residence was a 9,625-square-foot Chicago residence, which she sold for US$4.625 million in 2015. She previously owned a penthouse in Atlanta, which was sold for $1.8 million in 2008.
Montecito: Arguably, her most impressive real estate asset is a 23,000-square-foot mansion in Montecito, California (near Santa Barbara) that she purchased for $50 million in 2001. Today, the value of this house is at least 90 million US dollars. In 2016, she bought a 23-acre farm also located in Montecito for $29 million. In 2019, she bought the house next door for $6.85 million, expanding her Montecito footprint by 4 acres. In total, Oprah owns 67 acres of land in Montecito.
Washington: From 2018 to 2021, Oprah owned a 43-acre estate on Orcas Island in Washington State. She bought the property for US$8.275 million in 2018 and sold it for US$14 million in July 2021.
Colorado: In 2014, she spent $14 million to buy a house in Telluride, Colorado.
Maui: Oprah bought her first property on Maui in 2002. Over the years, she has spent $60 million to piece together more than 160 acres of land on Maui. In one transaction alone, she spent $32 million to buy the property next door.
Charity
At the time of writing, Oprah has donated more than $400 million to charities, mainly for education. She paid more than 400 scholarships to Morehouse College in Atlanta.
In 1998, she founded the Oprah Angel Network, a charity that supports non-profit organizations around the world. To date, Oprah’s Angel Network has raised more than $80 million for various organizations. Oprah personally pays 100% of the network’s management costs, so 100% of all raised funds can be directly used for non-profit organizations.
In 2007, Oprah established the Oprah Winfrey Girls Leadership Academy in South Africa. So far, she has personally donated 40 million U.S. dollars to support this school. At the time of writing, the school has 322 students enrolled and plans to expand to 450 students.
Oprah’s Angel Network raised $11 million for Hurricane Katrina’s rescue, and Oprah donated another $10 million.
In 2013, she donated $12 million to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. In the same year, Oprah received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama.
