Oprah Winfrey is reshaping her nearly two-decade mission in South Africa. After almost 20 years, the media icon is charting a bold new course for one of her proudest endeavors. What began as a single campus is about to grow into something far larger. She says the heart of the mission stays exactly the same.
Oprah Winfrey revealed this week that the school she founded in South Africa nearly two decades ago will wind down. It hands its operations back to local officials, while she pours energy into expanded scholarship efforts for girls.
The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls will end operations in its current form at the close of 2027, with the provincial government taking over the facility from there. "The dream was never simply to build a school. It was to invest in the limitless potential of young women," Winfrey, 72, said in a statement.
She stressed that her purpose "doesn't end with one campus. It continues in every girl whose future can be transformed through education."
The academy will graduate two more classes before the shift. A rep says remaining students will move to other top-tier schools with tuition fully covered through graduation.

#south #africa #campus

The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy of Girls in South Africa will be closing after 2027 and transitioning its operations back to local officials
Winfrey will instead focuses on an "expanded" scholarship program for girls there
"Overall, there will be double the amount of girls who will have access to education through this model," a rep for Winfrey says
The South Africa school that Oprah Winfrey opened nearly two decades ago will be closing and transitioning its operations back to local officials while Winfrey focuses on an "expanded" scholarship program for girls there, she announced this week.
"The dream was never simply to build a school. It was to invest in the limitless potential of young women," Winfrey, 72, said in a statement on Wednesday, July 29, announcing that the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy of Girls will end operations in its current form at the end of 2027.

#winfrey #girls #operations #leadership

A message of gratitude earned Oprah Winfrey a special gift from Queen Bey.
She told the story on the Are You Okay? web series, explaining how it all happened.
"I went to the Beyoncé Renaissance concert," Winfrey said in a clip posted to social media Monday. "I was so blown away. I wrote her a fan letter. She obviously liked the fan letter because she then sent me one of the hats from Renaissance. Beyoncé sent me a hat!"
She continued, breaking into a dance, "I sent her a letter and she sent me a hat! I sent her a letter and she sent me a hat!"
Oprah previously praised Beyoncé's Renaissance show on Instagram, writing alongside a clip of Bey onstage, "I have never in my life experienced something as transcendent as beyonce's Renaissance Tour."

#okay

Oprah Winfrey acknowledged making a mistake in her career on Keke Palmer's podcast.
The former daytime TV star's show aired nationally between 1986 to 2011.
Winfrey, 72, left her talk show 15 years ago.
KeKe Palmer couldn't help but bring up Oprah Winfrey's short stint as a singer when the former talk show host was a guest on her podcast.
At one point during their conversation on Baby, This Is Keke Palmer, the I Love Boosters star began crooning, "I think I'm gonna run on," which Winfrey quickly shut down.

#podcast #talk

Oprah Winfrey left Keke Palmer stunned after revealing that the name the world has known her by for decades isn't actually the one on her birth certificate.
Appearing on Tuesday's episode of Baby, This Is Keke Palmer, the 72-year-old media mogul shared the surprising story behind her famous name, explaining that she was originally named Orpah after a biblical figure.
"It was Orpah from the Bible," Oprah told a speechless Keke.
Oprah's real name is actually Orpah (Getty Images)
The television icon explained that her aunt chose the name from the Book of Ruth.

#oprah #winfrey #baby

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.

#keke #podcast

Oprah Winfrey appeared as the guest on the July 21 episode of the Baby, This is Keke Palmer podcast
Winfrey, , talked about her experiences growing up, revealing that her name as it is known today took shape then
While she doesn't go by her legal name, Winfrey is grateful for the success that's come with her own
Oprah Winfrey offered fans an explainer on the history of her name.
The media icon, 72, appeared on Baby, This is Keke Palmer, where the host and actress, 32, said, "I found out that your name... it was originally Orpah?"

#keke #orpah #guest

Prince William is reportedly open to having a reunion with his brother, Prince Harry, but there is a condition. Harry was in the UK recently on a trip related to the Invictus Games. While he and his wife Meghan Markle, along with their kids, met King Charles in private, a reunion between him and William didn't happen.
According to a report by Woman's Day, Prince William is ready to meet Prince Harry, but only on a strict condition. Sources suggest that the Prince of Wales wants a legal contract before he meets his brother.
Prince William and Harry have been on bad terms for a long time. On his recent trip to the UK, Harry had a chance to meet with King Charles during a private meeting that involved his wife, Meghan Markle, and their kids, Archie and Lilibet. This was the first time in four years that the King met with his grandchildren.
While referring to William's potential plans to meet with Harry, a source told the outlet, "Harry might have charmed his way with his father, but it's going to take a lot more than a few feeble gestures to convince William to give him another chance." They stated that William and his wife, the Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton, still feel the "hurt and humiliation" from the public attacks Harry and Markle have made on the monarchy. The relationship between the two brothers was hit hard following Harry and Markle's interview with Oprah Winfrey and the former's memoir.
A source further stated, "William says a legally binding contract is the only language the Sussexes will understand." His reported proposed contract states that Harry and Markle would not make any public attacks on the Royal Family. It also conveys that the couple must adhere to boundaries when using their Royal ******* les for their brands. William allegedly wants Harry and Markle to stop mentioning the members of the Royal Family in public.

#william #markle

Prince Harry is set to return to the UK next month, reportedly with his wife, Meghan Markle, and kids. A reconciliation with King Charles seems to be on the cards. However, the same can't be said about Prince William, with whom he is trying to reconcile by reaching out.
Prince Harry is reportedly returning to the UK with Meghan Markle and his children in July. This will be the first time in four years that the Sussexes will be returning to Britain with Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. They will be in the UK to attend the One Year To Go event for the Invictus Games 2027. The event will take place in Birmingham. And with Harry's return, it is expected that the duke will meet his father, King Charles, for reconciliation. However, reconciliation with his older brother, Prince William, seems difficult, as the future monarch is reportedly ignoring Harry's phone calls.
As per RadarOnline.com's source, "Harry has tried to make contact repeatedly, but William won't take his calls." This hints "he is not minded to a reconciliation at all." Moreover, the fact that Charles is "bending over backwards to make Harry's visit happen has become the source of deep irritation for William." It is believed that William changed his tune towards his brother after his 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey and his bombshell autobiography, "Spare." That is why the source thinks, "William won't be seeing his brother." They suspect the future monarch "will make sure he's miles away when Harry visits to avoid any awkward encounters."
However, Harry seems to be keen to introduce his kids to his royal family and "not just the Windsors, but the Spencers too." Harry "wants to spend time with the wider family," and "this has been on the cards for some time." Although the meeting with the family could have happened "next year" during the Invictus Games, "but for whatever reason, it is happening this summer." "Harry is, and has for some time been, very keen to have the kids come over to the U.K. There's been a feeling of such sadness that he's not been able to bring them to the U.K," said the source.
The post Prince Harry Is Reportedly Fighting This Battle Alone appeared first on Reality Tea.

Last week, news broke that Amy Griffin, author of the 2025 New York Times bestselling memoir "The Tell," had filed a lawsuit against the anonymous former classmate who, last March, sued Griffin, alleging that several of the anecdotes in the book — which details a horrific experience of childhood rape and ****** ual abuse — were not Griffin's, but her own. Griffin's countersuit claims that the classmate's lawsuit characterizes her as "a fraud and a thief." This isn't the kind of delicious, schadenfreude-dipped publishing-world drama about a bad art friend that other writers love to deconstruct in group texts. It's a dispiriting legal battle in which two women who likely suffered profound ****** ual trauma are publicly battling, one with a focus on preserving both her reputation and her business interests, and the other with almost nothing on her side, including, thanks to Griffin's countersuit, anonymity.
"The Tell" is about a woman who is by every possible measure successful, trying to understand what unseen force is holding her apart from an otherwise beautiful life — impacting her marriage, alienating her children and causing panic attacks. On the encouragement of her equally successful, equally blessed husband, Griffin agrees to try therapeutic MDMA. A former star student and long-distance runner from a prominent family in Amarillo, Texas, Griffin goes into her first session with a competitor's single-minded determination to, as she writes, "get to the finish line."
It takes almost no time for the drug to unearth memories of habitual ****** ual abuse by a teacher at her middle school that began when Griffin was 12 and continued until she was 16. Her confidence in the memories she recovers ("My body knew what had happened to me. The way I'd shake when I'd tell my story; the way my eyes welled up with tears at the mention of Texas") sets her on a relentless trajectory of seeking legal and emotional redress.
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I listened to "The Tell" on audiobook knowing very little about it. I didn't know that Griffin is married to a billionaire former hedge-fund founder, or that she's on the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Board of Trustees, or that her own venture-capital firm, G9, has made her a billionaire in her own right. I didn't see the seals of approval from America's trio of book-club heavies — Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, and Jenna Bush Hager — on its cover. I didn't read the glowing blurbs for a first-time author from Gwyneth Paltrow, Gloria Steinem, Chanel Miller and Mariska Hargitay. I didn't know that the book wasn't written so much as it was built by a prominent ghostwriter, a cadre of well-placed friends and colleagues, and a publishing industry that's made billions of dollars from trauma memoirs by women.

Whitney Houston's longtime bodyguard remains her sworn defender even after her death.
Ray Watson recently protected the late singer from false claims, sharing his perspective on what happened during her 2009 appearance on Oprah Winfrey's show.
The incident began trending after Oprah Winfrey claimed Whitney Houston had fallen off the stage because she had relapsed. However, Ray Watson begged to differ.
Watson recently addressed Winfrey's viral claims in a virtual interview shared on YouTube. He confirmed Houston took a tumble off the talk show stage in 2009, but it wasn't because she was high, as the host claimed.
The bodyguard confessed that he couldn't recall what Houston was doing at the time, whether it was a sound check or something else. But he remembered her walking towards the front of the stage and someone trying to warn her as she moved closer to the edge.

Representatives of Whitney Houston's estate have denied claims Oprah Winfrey recently made about the iconic singer's behaviour at a 2009 interview.
Speaking at a Cannes Lions event earlier this week, the daytime TV icon recalled how the I Will Always Love You star "fell off the stage" during a taping of The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Winfrey alleged that Houston had relapsed on drugs at the time, and she "begged" the audience not to share details of what had happened with the media.
But in a statement posted to Instagram on Wednesday, executors of Houston's estate confirmed the Greatest Love of All hitmaker "absolutely fell off stage", though denied it was because she was "high".
"From the 2009 interview on the Oprah Winfrey show, Whitney absolutely fell off stage, but it was during a sound check, and it was due to the darkness of the area and her unfamiliarity with the stage. She was absolutely not high," they wrote. "This story was picked up by several media outlets. Like many people, she faced personal battles, but it is inaccurate and unfair to attach that struggle to every performance or every chapter of her life."
The spokesperson went on to insist that Houston fulfilled her "professional" duties that day.

Whitney Houston's estate clapped back at Oprah Winfrey in an Instagram post on Wednesday after the talk show host detailed the singer falling off the stage during a 2009 interview, categorizing the incident as a relapse in Houston's sobriety.
"From the 2009 interview on 'The Oprah Winfrey Show,' Whitney absolutely fell off stage, but it was during a soundcheck and it was due to the darkness of the area and her unfamiliarity with the stage," the estate said in the statement. "She was absolutely not high."
Winfrey, speaking at Cannes Lion on Tuesday, shared that the "Oprah Winfrey Show" interview that had Houston performing for the last time on the show in front of a studio audience hit a snag when the singer, who Winfrey said was "back on drugs," fell off the stage.
"I knew that if that story got out that she fell off the stage that everybody would be, that she would be destroyed by that," Winfrey recalled. "So even though the audience was there and the audience had cameras, I begged them not to put those pictures up because it would ruin her life, and they did not. That would not happen today, I can tell you that."
Houston's estate issued a formal response after Winfrey's comments were "picked up by several media outlets."

There were 3,000 people on the plaza at the June 18 Obama Presidential Center grand opening ceremony, with almost too many celebrities to count.
A-listers in attendance included more than the performers like Marc Anthony and Stevie Wonder who brought the crowd to their feet during the program. Oprah Winfrey, who has a **** e named after her in the museum, was shaking hands with politicians like Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. Former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau danced in the front row seats down from former Vice President Kamala Harris (though his partner Katy Perry was not in attendance).
John Legend and Jennifer Hudson spent time in the crowd when they weren't on stage, seated not far from California Gov. Gavin Newsom. But former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama stayed on stage with the other living presidents, except for President Donald Trump.
See the celebrities and politicians alike mingling at the grand opening ceremony:
More: 'Democracy can be frustrating,' Obama says at presidential center opening

Kevin Hart says that there are some stars who should never be targeted at brutal celebrity roasts.
After the comedian, 46, faced the wrath of fellow A-listers during Netflix's Roast of Kevin Hart last month, he reflected on the long-running celebrity tradition during his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live Wednesday and said that the next person who steps up to be roasted will have to be "brave enough" and a "real big name."
Kimmel then asked if Hart could picture Oprah Winfrey as the subject of a roast — which left Hart speechless and shaking his head as the audience burst into laughter.
"Would that be unacceptable? That'd be like spray painting the Sistine Chapel?" Kimmel, 58, said with a laugh.
"If I found out that Oprah said she wanted to do it, I'm driving 100 miles per hour to Oprah's house," Hart said, adding that he would tell the iconic media mogul: "You cannot do this. No shot."

T.D. Jakes, Oprah Winfrey chat about AI, faith and Diddy rumors at Dallas business event