One of Oprah biographer Kitty Kelley’s selling points for her book was the fact that Oprah’s “aunt Katherine” (who in reality is Oprah’s cousin), Katherine Carr Esters, told her the name of Oprah’s biological father but swore her to secrecy. Since Kitty made this claim, an 84 year-old veteran from Mississippi has come forward to claim that he’s Oprah’s real dad and add that he’s tried to reach out to her in the past but never heard back.
The Daily Beast has an article following up on Kelley’s claim by an author who knows “Aunt Katherine” and has worked with her while doing research on an unrelated book. Journalist Alex Heard called Katherine to get her side of the story and was told that not only did she never confide in Kelley with the name of Oprah’s supposed dad, she also wishes she never talked to her. According to Katherine, Kitty completely misrepresented herself and the purpose of her book.
My friend Katharine Carr Esters sounded forlorn this week, saying she wished that everybody—including me—would leave her alone about a subject that’s made her life miserable lately: Kitty Kelley’s bestselling book Oprah, which churns up every scoop of dirt Kelley could find on Oprah Winfrey, who happens to be Esters’s second cousin. Esters let Kelley interview her over a three-day period in the summer of 2007. Now she wishes she could take it back.
“If I had it to do over again,” she wearily said over the phone, “I wouldn’t have talked to her at all.”The 82-year-old Esters, who still lives near the central Mississippi town of Kosciusko—where Oprah spent six years of her childhood—was quoted several times, usually attached to non-flabbergasting statements that, she concedes, Kelley conveyed accurately. One was Esters’s observation that Oprah has sometimes exaggerated the level of poverty she endured as a kid—not enough toys, too many cockroaches on the walls, etc.—to self-dramatize her rags-to-riches triumph. Another was that Oprah repeatedly said “no” when Esters asked to be invited on her TV show to publicize Esters’s self-published 2005 memoir, Jay Bird Creek and My Recollections.
“She did refuse to have me on the show,” Esters told me in her distinctly non-whiney way. “She said my book was mediocre. That it was not something that would interest anybody to read.”
But the revelation that has her in a tailspin—and that she flatly denies having said—is something that isn’t found in the book. During an April 13th Today show interview with Natalie Morales, Kelley said Esters revealed the Big Oprah Secret to her: the identity of Oprah’s biological father. (Oprah’s male parent growing up was a man named Vernon Winfrey, but the identity of her bio-dad is reportedly still unknown to her, because her mother, Vernita Lee, won’t reveal it.) From the start, Kelley has been dangling this newsmaker as a mystery morsel, a Deep Throat appetizer we’re allowed to contemplate, even sniff, but not consume just yet.
“Kelley says Esters told her that . . . Vernon Winfrey is not her real father, and spilled the beans to her about who actually is,” MSNBC.com reported that day. “Appearing surprised by Kelley’s assertion, Morales said, ‘If you reveal all of her other secrets, why not say, “Oprah, this is your father?” ‘ “…
Once Esters’ denials [that she gave Kelley the name of Oprah’s father] vibrated through the ether, Kelley issued a statement that returned serve forcibly, saying the interview happened, that Kelley knows the secret name, and that she’s personally anguished to hear that Esters is now disavowing it…
As for Kelley’s dispute with Esters, I pointed out that there seem to be only two possibilities: One of them was lying, or one of them somehow forgot what really happened. Kelley mentioned one other: That Esters has been stomped into submission by an 800-pound Harpo.
“Alex, I have written about the most powerful woman on the planet,” she said dramatically. “I’m sure that great pressure has been brought to bear on Mrs. Esters.” Did she have evidence for this claim, or was it just a hunch? A hunch. For her part, Esters says she hasn’t heard from Oprah since the blowup started.
We may never know who’s telling the truth. Is Kelley capable of lying? Um, yeah, I think so—entire episodes of The Larry King Show have been devoted to illustrating that proposition. Is Esters capable of forgetting? Probably. She sounds a lot older than she did just three years ago, which makes me worry about her health. The one thing I’m sure I don’t believe is that Kelley is especially torn up about having put this great old lady in a bind. If that were a real concern, she should have never opened her mouth.
[From The Daily Beast]
I think Natalie Morales nailed it when she asked why Kelley suddenly had a ping of conscience when it came to revealing the name of Oprah’s father but wasn’t bothered about dishing Oprah’s dirt in other areas of her life. Still, according to what Kelley has said during the press tour, a lot of the book was based on Oprah’s past interviews as source material. If she was just relaying information that Oprah had already revealed, and double-checking it with sources, you can see why Kelley might hold back when it came to revealing Oprah’s dad’s name. She may also have kept that information out of the book in order to use it as a salacious selling point while making herself seem somehow righteous for excluding it. I’m on Aunt Katherine’s side, though, and this article convinced me that Kelley is at least misrepresenting what Katherine told her.
I don’t know the ins and outs of who said what and why.
But I just don’t like it when someone with as high a profile as Oprah has, and who makes her living out in public, is completely protected by the media from any kind of scrutiny.
After all, she uses the life experiences that she claims are true on her show.
She herself makes her life fair game.
Kelly’s trying to sell books, I’d be willing to bet she made it up – otherwise, yeah, why not tell? Gross.
But does it really matter anyway? Besides Oprah herself, who cares who her bio dad is? She’s a grown woman now, not a little kid, and if the info is out there, I’m sure she knows it. Beyond that, who cares?
Good points made by Tess and lucy2. When I was a reporter it was important to #1: get the facts straight. #2: Protect your source.
Kelley has done neither.
@lucy2: It’s all about control for Oprah. She doesn’t want bio dad’s name public knowledge because that puts significant dents in the carefully crafted back story about her life that she has fed the public over the years. Having bio dad’s name out there just opens up a whole bunch of situations that O cannot control.
Sounds like the Oprah Gravy Train threatened to discontinue its service to Aunt Katherine’s station…
“Sounds like the Oprah Gravy Train threatened to discontinue its service to Aunt Katherine’s station…”
Oh yea, she got the phone call that told her to retract what she said or else. haha!
Yeah, most likely it’s what Team Bethenny and Hautie said.
OR, Aunt Katherine is simply senile.
I think Oprah is the only person in history criticized because she wouldn’t coooperate with the author of an unathorized biography. Her mother lies about who her father is and somehow that’s Oprah’s fault? And I love my family, but if my family did some of the crap that Oprah’s family has done to her (denying that she was molested, going to a tabloid (for $$$) about her pregnancy/child, etc.), I would have cut them off a long time ago.
Oprah’s mother got pregnant over 50 years ago. Likely every adult in the family living in the area knew who the father was. I wouldn’t be surprised at all that Katherine gave away the name after “chatting” for three days with Kitty Kelley. I also expect that Oprah knows well who her father is because some relative told her a long time ago. She may not have known where he was or cared, however.
Oprah knows who raised her, and that makes Vernan(?) more her father than some sperm donor.
Of course her biological father wants contact–she’s rich now. Where was he when she was born and needed someone to raise her?
I guess Ms. Esters did have a change of heart once she realized that she had no business entertaining the likes of Kitty Kelley in the first place. Did she actually believe that a woman with Kelley’s reputation was up to any good? Of course not! She obviously wanted some “payback” because Oprah refused to promote her books and it “back fired”. It’s sad but sometimes your worst enemies can be envious relatives with “convoluted entitlement” issues.
Why are people suddenly trying to tear Oprah down? I’m sure she isn’t a saint, but I can think of 100 other celebrities who deserve it more than she does.
O, what a mess 😮
Isn’t it ironic that all of these Baby Daddies come crawling out of the woodwork when the baby grows up and becomes famous. They suddenly want to “parent” the adult child that they had denied, abandoned and ignored when the child actually needed a father.
Children never forgot who was there for them, cared for them and showed them love. Children also remember those who treated them badly, abused and neglected them when they were small and helpless.
Oldham plzzzzzz don’t buy prah book by Kitty Kelly,she is a predjuice hater.she sys all african american women have slave mentality in thier bones,this crap is goin back!!How would she know, i have never been a slave!!so don’t have shit in my bones.