The Real Reason Oprah Doesn't Have Many Friends
There isn't a household name that is more well-known across the world than billionaire Oprah Winfrey. Oprah has made a name for herself in many different media fields, from being a journalist to businesswoman, from TV presenter to TV producer, from film producer to actor and so on, per IMDb.
As a renaissance woman and fellow Aquarius, one would think that Oprah moves through the social scene flawlessly and has loads of friends, right? From big-named celebrities such as Tyler Perry, or Julia Roberts, or even Deepak Chopra, many have commented on their wonderful friendships with Oprah."I've made a lifelong friend in that woman. I think she's one of the highlights of humankind. I'm lucky that she's my pal," Roberts told Extra in 2011.
Well, even though she does have a huge rolodex of friendships in her life, there are only three people she considers lucky enough to be in her inner circle. Read on to find out which celebrities have made the cut into Oprah's world.
Who exactly is in Oprah's inner circle?
Oprah Winfrey admitted to Hoda Kotb for Kotb's podcast, "Making Space," that she only has a small inner circle, and hasn't "expanded that circle" since meeting journalists Gayle King and Maria Shriver four decades ago. Oprah only mentions those two and her personal trainer, Bob Greene, as the lucky friends in her circle of trust. "So, I don't have a lot of friends. Everybody knows Gayle. There's Gayle, there's Maria, there's Bob. And that's — that's about it, you know?" Oprah said. "Until recently, I've become friends with a couple of people in my later adult life, in the past five years."
In 1976, Oprah and King first met when they both were journalists at Baltimore's WJZ station. They became besties instantly when Oprah invited King to stay over her place during a snowstorm because King couldn't make it home, per Daily Mail. In 1992, Oprah met Greene at a spa in Colorado, and at the time weighed 237 pounds. Per Oprah Mag, she said that the trainer "was the answer to [her] prayers" for her weight-loss journey.
According to the podcast, Oprah also remembers one morning, 42 years ago, when she was coming into work and saw that Shriver was there working all night. Both were in the bathroom at the same time, and it just clicked from there. "We started a conversation. And I forever think that that was, like, a divine moment that happened because she was one of my true, grounded friendships that carried me through my entire career," Oprah said.