Celebrity biographer Kitty Kelley released Oprah: A Biography in April of 2010 in which she goes through Oprah Winfrey’s amazing life with a fine-tooth comb, interviewing tons of close friends and family members to try and find some of the stories that may have fallen through the cracks.
One of those “family members” is Oprah’s half-sister Patricia Lloyd, who Oprah lived with in Milwaukee with their mother and brother Jeffrey. It was during this time, at the age of 9, that Oprah was reportedly raped by her 19-year-old cousin and then a couple years later was molested by a family friend and her uncle. It was also during this time that Patricia says her half-sister used to offer a lot of bang for your buck! Here’s an excerpt from Oprah: A Biography:
Oprah devised another way to make money. ‘She invited men over during the day while my mother was working,’ said[Oprah’s half-sister] Patricia. ‘Her boyfriends were all much older than her, about 19 or in their early 20s.
Oprah would give Popsicles to me and our younger brother Jeffrey and say, “You two go out on the porch and play now.” Oprah then would go insider with her boyfriend…I didn’t find out later what Oprah was doing until I was older and she showed me how she did ‘The Horse’ – which is what she called the sex act.’ (Page 34)
It took Patricia many years to realize that Oprah was selling “The Horse” – trading sexual favors for money
Who knew the oldest profession in the world was horse trading?!?
Patricia has a history of spilling Oprah’s secrets. She received $19,000 from The National Enquirer back in 1990 to reveal Oprah had given birth to a baby boy when she was 14 and that the child died two days later in the hospital. From People:
Before the article came out, she says, “Only my family and closest friends knew. I would tell no one until I felt safe enough to share my dark past: the years I was sexually abused, from age 10 to 14, my resulting promiscuity as a teenager, and finally, at 14, my becoming pregnant.”
The book goes one step further by interviewing Oprah’s cousin Katharine Esters:
“I don’t believe a bit of it,” Esters told Kelley. “Oprah was a wild child running the streets of Milwaukee in those days, and not accepting discipline from her mother. She shames herself and her family to now suggest otherwise.” Esters added: “That story helped launch Oprah and make her what she is today…Her audiences may believe her stories. Her family does not.” (Page 34-35)
Oprah’s half-sister Patricia Lloyd was found dead
in her New Berlin, Wisconsin apartment in February
of 2003. The cause of death was not initially
apparent, but coroners later determined she died
from an accidental overdose of oxycodone.
As far as I know, Katharine Esters is still alive.
