It’s an unseasonably warm November day as I wind my way through the roads of Montecito, Calif., to an estate tucked behind an imposing gate. A security guard checks my credentials as I arrive. I’m a bit tense, but who wouldn’t be? In a matter of minutes, I’ll be interviewing the most famous woman in the world.
The iron rails open to reveal grounds so exquisite, they could be confused for a five-star resort. The guard has hopped on a golf cart and now is leading me through manicured greens that stretch 42 acres. For a second, I catch a glimpse of the property’s main house, a neoclassical edifice in the distance. Scurrying about is a sea of workers, who are a year or so into a remodeling project still months from completion. We take a sharp left, meandering down a long cobblestone road toward another property, this one shielded by a wall of bricks. I park my car and am ushered through a door that leads to a modest, multibedroom cottage — and suddenly I see her, Oprah Winfrey.
She’s dressed casually in calf-length khakis, a white button-down shirt and a pair of Jimmy Choo flats she’ll soon lose. Her soft curls are pulled off of her face, and she radiates the warmth for which she is well known. I have spoken to her by phone only a handful of times and still she pulls me toward her for an embrace that puts me at ease. Then she steps back and assesses my sartorial decisions for the day. Her eyes fall to my feet, wedged into 5-inch heels, which now I see were overkill.
“Girlllll!” she teases, with bellowing laughter, before leading me to a patio table where a lunch of root vegetable soup and lobster Cobb salad will be served.
Welcome to the world of Oprah, a mix of grandeur and simplicity, the huge and the humble. She’s one of the richest women on the planet (worth a reported $2.9 billion, she is the first African-American female billionaire and one of few self-made women at that level). She also is one of the busiest, with her own from-the-ashes TV network (OWN), production company (Harpo), magazine (O, The Oprah Magazine) and a hit film (Lee Daniels’ The Butler) that is generating serious awards-season buzz. But you’d never know it on this afternoon.
There are no phones in sight, no evidence of handlers or assistants. She laughs readily and easily and makes clear her afternoon is mine. If she launches straight into interviewer mode, eager to know who ranks among my favorite subjects, it is to be expected. She is Oprah, after all, whose daily talk show ruled the airwaves for 25 seasons. The only time edge creeps into her otherwise relaxed demeanor is when I ask about the near “nervous breakdown” she reportedly suffered in 2012. “I never had a nervous breakdown,” she says, explaining how Access Hollywood had taken an interview she gave about her overwhelming workload out of context. “I thought that was such sensational exploitation.”
If anyone is a living, breathing embodiment of “Live Your Best Life,” the Winfrey it’s-never-too-late-to-improve mission on which OWN was founded, it is Winfrey herself. Rather quickly, and at her direction, the network — previously a punching bag in media circles — began to take shape. In July, Zaslav announced in an earnings call that OWN, a 50-50 partnership between Winfrey and Discovery, was in the black. Headlines such as “Oprah Winfrey isn’t quite holding her OWN” gave way to “Oprah Winfrey’s OWN becomes profitable faster than execs predicted.” The channel, buoyed by a handful of Tyler Perry shows and a collection of Winfrey-fronted series, registered a ratings uptick of 20 percent in its key female demo thus far this year, and cable and satellite operators agreed to pay millions in fees to carry the network going forward. “It makes it sweet,” says Logan. “Going through what we went through, we really appreciate where we are today.”
Credit: The Hollywood Reporter
