Oprah's Stepmother Reveals The 'Unhealthy' Relationship Oprah Had With Close Friend

Today we bring the part two of an exclusive interview Oprah's stepmother Barbara Winfrey granted on Daily Mail UK. Barbara revealed that through out the 14 years she's spent time with Oprah and Stedman, she has never seen them kiss or hold hands. It has never been a relationship noted for displays of passion. Across 28 years of dating Oprah and Stedman Graham could never stand accused of having publicly sizzled.

Oprah began dating Stedman in 1986 but, according to Barbara, in all the times she saw them together she never once witnessed them hold hands or kiss. They danced and they were clearly fond of each other, she said. ‘He was comfortable like an old shoe, to her. They stayed in the same room when they were here but he didn’t live with her exactly.
‘He travels so much; he would fly here and there to her. He’s at her beck and call.’ She added, ‘I think in the beginning it was different. Vernon told me how one time he was driving and Oprah was taking Stedman to meet family in Mississippi.
He said she was running her hands through his hair the whole trip, till he was so fed up he was ready to put her out of the car. ‘She wanted to get married at first but he wasn’t so keen.

‘Then she became this powerful person and things changed, the balance switched.’ Nowhere could that be clearer than on the occasion when, according to Barbara, Oprah ensured a book written by Stedman made it onto the bestseller list. She claimed that the star bought a warehouse and filled it with Stedman’s books. ‘It worked,’ she said, ‘His book was a bestseller.

Oprah and her boyfriend Stedman

‘Stedman isn’t a good steward of money and that suits Oprah fine. He is financially dependent on her. He knows her secrets and she knows his. ‘Why would they marry now? He’s there at her beck and call. He knows his role in her life.’ And just as importantly he understands Gayle’s role in Oprah’s life. Barbara said.

If Barbara had hoped that she and her stepdaughter might bond across relaxing days in the sun she was sorely mistaken.

She said: ‘She’s very flamboyant. We had meals three times a day, three courses, different place settings, different cutlery, glassware, different everything three times a day but she never talked to me and Vernon. ‘She didn’t spend any time with us.

 It was always her, Stedman and Gayle. The three of them. Anytime you looked up they were together. To me it was just bizarre.’

Barbara recalled the moment Oprah's father was held at a gun point n his barber’s shop and when they reached out for Oprah her response was; “Well, I expect him to be found dead in there one day.” and when she asked her why she said such callous statement she said, “Coz it’s true.

Oprah and Gayle

Barbara believes that Oprah is more dependent on Gayle than the other way round. Oprah’s highly public, lifelong struggle with her wildly fluctuating weight, is linked to her effort to ‘be’ the brand according to Barbara.
 She said, ‘She’s a stress eater. Food is her comfort. Potatoes are her downfall, potatoes, potato chips…any kind of potato.
She would frequently instruct Stedman to make a doggy bag of food to take away rather than enjoy it in company. ‘Oprah tells the world what to do but she’s in inner turmoil.
Everybody thinks she has all the answers but she needs to sit down with Dr Phil.’

 She continued, ‘Vernon often told me that he thought if Oprah could change the color of her skin she would - she’d make it lighter.’

The cover of next month’s edition of her eponymous magazine, ‘O: The Oprah Magazine’ shows the star, resplendent in Purple alongside the promise, ‘How to Love the Skin You’re In', but according to Barbara, that is something Oprah herself has never quite managed to achieve.

That unhappiness plays a part, she said, in the bitter denouement of her divorce from Vernon. It explains, to some extent, Oprah’s need to insert and assert herself in any of it. She said, ‘She’s a billionaire three times over, doesn’t it seem so petty? ‘If I could I’d like to tell her how sad it is she never took the time to get to know me as a woman. I would still be married to Vernon I think, if she had. ‘To me it’s just such a sad story at the end of the day.’