Oprah Winfrey shares her surprising guilty pleasure

Edward Segarra, USA TODAYTue, July 21, 2026 at 6:59 PM UTC

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Oprah is a household name — but has it gotten lost in translation along the way?

Oprah Winfrey opened up about the origins of her famous moniker in an interview on the "Baby, This Is Keke Palmer" podcast on Tuesday, July 21.

Host Keke Palmer kicked off their conversation by sharing her surprise to discover Winfrey's real first name is "Orpah."

"[It's] from the Bible. Ruth 1:14," Winfrey, 72, said. "Nobody knew how to spell it. On my birth certificate, it's 'Orpah,' and then people started calling me Oprah. ... I didn't learn until I was 20 that this isn't really my name."

The talk-show icon previously opened up about her altered name in a 1983 audition tape for the morning show "A.M. Chicago," which resurfaced in 2014.

"My name is Oprah Winfrey. Oprah, spelled O-P-R-A-H, and if you notice, it's 'Harpo' spelled backwards," Winfrey said in the video, per The Hollywood Reporter. "My folks did not particularly like Harpo Marx — we did not even have a television set in our home for a number of years. Originally, I was named from the Bible by Aunt Ida, who named me from Ruth, the first chapter at the 14th verse, Orpah. But no one knew how to spell in my home, and that's why I ended up being Oprah."

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Although Oprah has built a media empire over the course of her career, taking things easy is one of her greatest pursuits.

"My favorite guilty pleasure is doing absolutely nothing," Winfrey said on "Baby, This Is Keke Palmer." "When the day has gone, and I say, 'What have I accomplished? Not one damn thing.'"

Winfrey also shared with Palmer that she's a perpetual homebody, much to the chagrin of her longtime friend, fellow TV journalist Gayle King.

"I don't know how we've remained friends for 50 years 'cause we're so opposite," Winfrey said. "And she'll call me sometimes and say, 'What are you doing, sitting with your thoughts?' And I go, 'That's exactly what I'm doing.'"

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Winfrey said her "perfect day" involves a quiet stay at home while it's raining outside, a cozy ambience reminiscent of her Mississippi upbringing. The Oprah's Book Club founder added that she would also indulge in a reading marathon.

"[I like] having a fireplace, having a dog and reading a book. And having another book after that to read, so you have a little stack," Winfrey said. "But I know that's not fun for most people. Gayle's like, 'Oh, God.'"

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Winfrey may have a steady rock in longtime partner Stedman Graham, but she wasn't always lucky in love.

"I was always attracted to somebody who was in one way or another trying to tell me I wasn't good enough," Winfrey said.

"Any time you think it's about the other person, that person is showing up to show you who you are. So, if you're in a relationship where you've taken a lot of stuff, it's really not about that person. It's about what is it about you that doesn't have the value for yourself that you're willing to let yourself be treated that way?"

Winfrey described a tumultuous relationship she had in her early 20s, explaining that her partner at the time belittled her and accused the rising TV journalist of thinking she was someone "special." During a heated argument, Winfrey said she attempted to stop her boyfriend from leaving home by holding onto the bumper of his vehicle as he drove away.

"I realized that I was no different than the women that I had grown up with, and said I would never be that way," said Winfrey, whose family had a history of emotional and physical abuse. "And when I was holding onto the bumper of the Datsun Z, I said, 'Oh, I wasn't hit, but I've become that woman.' ... I saw the history of women in my family who'd allowed themselves to sacrifice their own power to men."

The former "Oprah Winfrey Show" host said her perspective shifted when she realized her romantic struggles reflected a larger issue with her self-worth.

"So now, I thank him," Winfrey said. "I realized that all of the bad relationships were my best teachers. If you're with somebody that's not loving you the way you want to be loved or seeing you the way you want to be seen, that's not on them. That's on you. And the reason it keeps showing up wearing a different pair of pants is because God [or] the universe is trying to get you to see it."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Oprah reveals guilty pleasure, real name on Keke Palmer podcast

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