Oprah shares entries from her private journals

Want a peek inside Oprah's private journals? The media mogul has shared five pages from her hand-written journals...

Mar 8, 2011

Want a peek inside Oprah’s private journals? The media mogul has shared five pages from her hand-written journals, which are featured in the April issue of O, The Oprah Magazine. USA TODAY’s Cindy Clark reports that in an entry dated Sept. 22, 1970, a then-16-year-old Winfrey writes of her first dating experience: “Anthony asked me yesterday to go with him today. I answered yes. My only regret is my parents. Maybe I shouldn’t have said yes but I wanted to, and my want overpowered theirs…I hated to go against my parents but Anthony is so perfect (almost). I couldn’t say no.” Looking back now, Winfrey tells the magazine, “This was a seminal moment. I wasn’t allowed to date until I turned 16 in January, and it was September before I actually got asked. ‘Will you be my girl?’”

While filming The Color Purple, Winfrey devoted an entire journal to documenting the experience. “It was my solace and refuge during this most profoundly thrilling time,” she says. “Every day I couldn’t wait to get to set. And every night I looked forward to writing about it.” In a July 12, 1985 entry she describes working on the film set: “Steven kept saying great — great — everyone was moved — then Alan said part of it was in shadow or something. I prayed and prayed to be able to recapture the same energy, having Whoopi there to coax me on did help a lot.”

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