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PHOTO GALLERIES
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Oprah Winfrey
 Oprah is the undisputed Queen of All Media and, with a personal net worth of $1.4 billion, she is the world’s only black billionaire, according to Forbes. Born poor in Mississippi and sexually abused by relatives during her childhood, Oprah still managed to excel in school, reading before she was three and skipping two grades; at 18, she even won the Miss Black Tennessee Beauty Pageant. Although she got her start as a TV newscaster, it was as an empathetic talk show host that she was successful in taking over the worlds of broadcast and cable TV, magazines, books, movies, and Broadway. Even director Michael Moore has begged her to run for President. Since Hurricane Katrina, she has focused much more on charity work, including her own Oprah’s Angels organization, which she promotes heavily on her show. Recently rumors have swirled around the true nature of her relationship with her best friend Gayle King, though both have denied they are gay. 
 Oprah has lived for as long as twenty years with her partner Stedman Graham. She also had a son at age 14, but he died in infancy. 
 Oprah got her start as the youngest and first black female newscaster at Nashville’s WTVF-TV, and quickly made her way up to Chicago in 1983, where she took WLS’s "AM Chicago" morning show from last place to first in ratings in mere months, passing heavyweight Donahue. Once she went national in 1986, Oprah never looked back, quickly becoming the top-rated talk show in America with a blend of celebrity interviews and regular-joe tales of woe and inspiration. She has the propelled the careers of Dr. Phil and designer Nate Berkus, among many others, and her 2002 launch of O: The Oprah Magazine was the most successful launch in magazine history. Her Oprah’s Book Club can make or break an author—it’s understood that a selection will sell at least one million extra copies. Her upcoming weight loss book received the largest book advance in the history of publishing (passing former president, Bill Clinton). The talk show host/mogul/do-gooder opened a school in Africa for disadvantaged young girls in early 2007. 
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