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“Once they started with Oprah, that’s it.”
The Gist
- Oprah Winfrey appeared on the latest episode of Keke Palmer’s podcast.
- She revealed that her birth name is spelled O-R-P-A-H.
- “It was Orpah, from the Bible,” Winfrey confirmed.
Oprah Winfrey’s name is even more unique on her birth certificate. Appearing on the latest episode of Keke Palmer’s podcast, the media mogul revealed how it was originally spelled.
“I found out that your name... it was originally Orpah?” Palmer asked.
“It was Orpah, from the Bible,” Winfrey confirmed. “Ruth, first chapter, 14th verse. You know, it’s that whole Ruth and Naomi story. And Ruth said, ‘Wherever thou goest, I will go,’ and then Orpah said, ‘I’m going back. I’m sorry, I can’t, the road’s too long.”
After people accidentally began referring to her as Oprah, she eventually stuck with that spelling instead.
“I was a kid, and nobody knew how to spell it,” Winfrey explained. “It turned out, on my birth certificate, it’s O-R-P-A-H. Then people started calling me Oprah, and so, it’s just the difference between the ‘P’ being before the ‘R’ or after the ‘R.’ So once they started with Oprah, that’s it.”
“I didn’t learn until I was like, probably 20 or something that, ‘Oh, this isn’t really my name. My name is Orpah,’” she continued, confirming that her full legal name is Orpah Gail Winfrey.
In the same interview, Winfrey expressed gratitude for the legendary people who’ve mentored her throughout her decades-long career in entertainment.
“I had really strong mentors. I had the best. I had Maya Angelou. I had Sidney Poitier. I had Quincy Jones. I had Coretta Scott King. Those were my mentors,” she said. “When something would go wrong, I would call one or the other of those people, Maya and Sidney more so than anybody else.”
Read the original article on InStyle
