was the opposite of her. I’m not verbally aggressive or assertive. She would follow me around. ‘I’m behind you,’ she’d yell in the hall or on the stairs. ‘I’m following you.’ She was determined to be my friend. I was considered a pretty girl back then, and that’s why she wanted to befriend me. She knew I had been recruited by American Airlines, which was a big deal at that time. They were going to use me in their advertising commercials. So Oprah figured, ‘I’m going to get close to her.’ It was a ‘pretty girl’ thing. Nothing to do with any accomplishment or my personality. Just how I looked.”
For all her rampaging self-confidence, Oprah later admitted that her self-image was frayed around the edges. “I remember that every single month, on the day
Seventeen
magazine came out, I’d wait by the newsstand for the delivery truck. They’d throw a stack of magazines off, and I’d be there to buy the first copy and read all the beauty tips. I mean, my god, the idea of being a pretty girl! I thought if I could just be pretty, my life would be fine. So I’d look at the models and at every makeup trick there was and I’d try them all. I even ironed my hair. Here I was, a negro girl who had no business ironing anything but her shirt, and I was ironing my hair.”
Years later Oprah admitted to the actress Charlize Theron that she grew up “idolizing beautiful girls.” She said, “I’d think, ‘What would it be like to look like that?’ ” When she met Diane Sawyer she seemed besotted by the beautiful blond cohost of
Good Morning America,
who, like Oprah, was a Southern beauty queen, crowned America’s Junior Miss in 1963.
Some employees at ABC-TV noticed the affectionate relationship between the two women, and winked as if to say, “Guess who’s got a crush on Diane?” They recalled the giggly late-night phone calls, their excited plans for future joint programs, the hugs, and Oprah’s lavish gifts—the gigantic sprays of orchids that arrived after every one of Diane’s big exclusives, the expensive Kieselstein-Cord handbag, the one-carat diamond toe ring.
“There was a whisper in the workplace,” said Bonnie Goldstein, a former producer for
ABC News.
“I don’t even know how [our friendship] happened,” Oprah told
InStyle
magazine in 1998. “We used to sit around the table and say, ‘You know who is the coolest person? That Diane Sawyer.’ Then out of the clear darn blue sky Diane called and invited me to Martha’s Vineyard. We had so much fun. Fun, fun, fun.”
Another beautiful woman Oprah befriended after she became famous was Julia Roberts, the star of
Pretty Woman,
who appeared on her talk show ten times and described Oprah in 2004 as her “best friend.” Intrigued by the actress’s luscious good looks, Oprah asked, “Does the pretty thing ever get to ya?…I’m wondering. I was having this discussion with my girlfriend the other day. I said, ‘It’s a really great thing we were never, like, pretty women, because now we don’t have to worry about losing that.’ ” The actress said: “You can’t really complain about being in a movie called
Pretty Woman
when you’re the woman.” Oprah nodded in agreement and smiled adoringly.
In college she seemed to collect pretty people. “She had her eye on my boyfriend at Fisk and was always asking me questions about him,” said Sheryl Atkinson. “He looked a lot like Stedman—what we call a pretty boy, high yella—light-skinned with European features and a caramel complexion….Oprah was quite aggressive in her pursuit of him. I remember lying on my bed in the dorm one Sunday night listening to her on WVOL. I heard her dedicate a song to him. I couldn’t believe it. I wasn’t mad, because I knew he wasn’t interested in her, but I was amazed at how forward she was. But she was like that in class, too. The professors didn’t like her because she would debate with them and tell them they were wrong. They
For all her rampaging self-confidence, Oprah later admitted that her self-image was frayed around the edges. “I remember that every single month, on the day
Seventeen
magazine came out, I’d wait by the newsstand for the delivery truck. They’d throw a stack of magazines off, and I’d be there to buy the first copy and read all the beauty tips. I mean, my god, the idea of being a pretty girl! I thought if I could just be pretty, my life would be fine. So I’d look at the models and at every makeup trick there was and I’d try them all. I even ironed my hair. Here I was, a negro girl who had no business ironing anything but her shirt, and I was ironing my hair.”
Years later Oprah admitted to the actress Charlize Theron that she grew up “idolizing beautiful girls.” She said, “I’d think, ‘What would it be like to look like that?’ ” When she met Diane Sawyer she seemed besotted by the beautiful blond cohost of
Good Morning America,
who, like Oprah, was a Southern beauty queen, crowned America’s Junior Miss in 1963.
Some employees at ABC-TV noticed the affectionate relationship between the two women, and winked as if to say, “Guess who’s got a crush on Diane?” They recalled the giggly late-night phone calls, their excited plans for future joint programs, the hugs, and Oprah’s lavish gifts—the gigantic sprays of orchids that arrived after every one of Diane’s big exclusives, the expensive Kieselstein-Cord handbag, the one-carat diamond toe ring.
“There was a whisper in the workplace,” said Bonnie Goldstein, a former producer for
ABC News.
“I don’t even know how [our friendship] happened,” Oprah told
InStyle
magazine in 1998. “We used to sit around the table and say, ‘You know who is the coolest person? That Diane Sawyer.’ Then out of the clear darn blue sky Diane called and invited me to Martha’s Vineyard. We had so much fun. Fun, fun, fun.”
Another beautiful woman Oprah befriended after she became famous was Julia Roberts, the star of
Pretty Woman,
who appeared on her talk show ten times and described Oprah in 2004 as her “best friend.” Intrigued by the actress’s luscious good looks, Oprah asked, “Does the pretty thing ever get to ya?…I’m wondering. I was having this discussion with my girlfriend the other day. I said, ‘It’s a really great thing we were never, like, pretty women, because now we don’t have to worry about losing that.’ ” The actress said: “You can’t really complain about being in a movie called
Pretty Woman
when you’re the woman.” Oprah nodded in agreement and smiled adoringly.
In college she seemed to collect pretty people. “She had her eye on my boyfriend at Fisk and was always asking me questions about him,” said Sheryl Atkinson. “He looked a lot like Stedman—what we call a pretty boy, high yella—light-skinned with European features and a caramel complexion….Oprah was quite aggressive in her pursuit of him. I remember lying on my bed in the dorm one Sunday night listening to her on WVOL. I heard her dedicate a song to him. I couldn’t believe it. I wasn’t mad, because I knew he wasn’t interested in her, but I was amazed at how forward she was. But she was like that in class, too. The professors didn’t like her because she would debate with them and tell them they were wrong. They
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