Oprah's Calls Half-Sister 'The Miracle of All Miracles' - Announcement a Ratings Smash
by Marivic Cabural
Oprah Winfrey finally introduced her half-sister Patricia to millions of people all over world on Monday, and it proved to be one of the show's most successful days ever. The ratings for "The Oprah Winfrey Show" yesterday were the highest in six years - averaging 9.6 households.
On the show, Winfrey called the finding “the miracle of all miracles” and disclosed how the woman she introduced, known only as Patricia, undertook a years-long search for her family.
The heartfelt journey came to a head last Thanksgiving when Oprah and Patricia were united for the first time.
After seeing a local story about Winfrey’s mother explaining how two of her children had died, including a daughter with the same name as Patricia, Oprah’s half-sister felt an alarming coincidence.
"The hairs on the back of my neck stood up," Patricia said. "Because I knew one of my siblings and I shared the same name."
Even after she had officially known the two were related, she never once tried to sell the story – a move big sister Oprah respects.
"Family business should be handled by family," Patricia said. "It couldn't be handled by anyone else. That's not fair. It wouldn't be fair to you."
Oprah spoke about her other sister, Pat, who had gone to the press about Oprah’s teenage pregnancy of a child who died shortly after birth. Oprah went on to speak about putting the sister, who later died, in rehab twice for drug addiction.
"It feels to me like you are Pat on her very best day," Winfrey told the woman. "You are what she wanted to be without the drugs."
In 1963, when Patricia was born, Oprah was just 8 years old and living with her father, never even knowing her mother was pregnant.
Oprah’s mother, Vernita Lee, said she was unable to ever tell Oprah she had given her baby up for adoption, “because I thought it was a terrible thing for me to do, that I had done.”
In reality, Lee had been unable to care for the child and feared she would never get off welfare if she kept her.
Gayle King, Oprah’s best friend, did a follow-up interview with her on the King Radio Show on Tuesday about her relationship with her half-sister.
Oprah praised her half-sister, calling her a "sweet person." She said that their common interest is their ailing mother, and that they are speaking regularly about her care.
"Her coming into the family at this time has been a great peace offering, a great symbol of peace-making in this family. I would say I see her as a gift," said Oprah.