Oprah Winfrey has opened up about how her background in poverty inspired her to be generous in later life, in an interview with TV3's Hilary Barry tonight.
Having risen from a modest upbringing to becoming one of the world's most powerful women, Oprah said she has never forgotten the generous nuns who helped her family at Christmas.
Forbes has named her the wealthiest African-American of the 20th century, with her self-made empire worth an estimated US$3 billion. But that's a far cry from her birth in rural Mississippi, where she was born into poverty to a teenage mother.
While she is now world-renowned for her philanthropy, Oprah said she initially didn't know what to do with her sudden wealth.
"I wasn't accustomed to having money, so I didn't know what money really meant," she told Hilary Barry.
Hounded by a large number of charities, Oprah had to stop and think about where she would donate her money.
She decided to focus on education, opening the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa in 2007.
"My philosophy is to give back what I have been given," she said.
Remembering one Christmas when the Winfrey family believed they wouldn't be able to afford to celebrate, Oprah teared up recalling how a group of nuns came to the family’s house with food and toys.
"It was the fact that they did it," she said. "They did it…It's late at night, and I thought there wasn't going to be a Christmas, and now these nuns have showed up."
In 2002 Oprah packed up her team to help impoverished children across the US and South Africa to celebrate Christmas.
"I did for them what someone did for me. So they will never forget that it was done."
Oprah's sole Evening with Oprah show, which is presented by TV3 and More FM, will be held at Auckland's Vector Arena on December 16 and will see Oprah take to the stage to share her own story and insights into her success.
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