Oprah Winfrey's cousin: 'Oprah made up poverty stories'

Chris Pizzello <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/dailydish/AP>

Oprah Winfrey's cousin has accused the media mogul of embellishing stories
of her poverty-stricken background, insisting her famous relative was
"spoiled" as a child.

The media mogul has often claimed her family was so poor she was dressed in
potato sacks and adopted cockroaches as pets growing up in rural
Mississippi.

The TV titan's life comes under scrutiny in new book "Oprah," by gossip
queen Kitty Kelley, and the tome includes interviews with Winfrey's cousin
Katherine Carr Esters.

She alleges Winfrey has exaggerated tales of her poor childhood, claiming
that although the family wasn't rich, her cousin was relatively "spoiled"
compared to her stories of abject poverty.

Esters says, "Where Oprah got that nonsense about growing up in filth and
roaches I have no idea. I've confronted her and asked, 'Why do you tell such
lies?' Oprah told me 'That's what people want to hear. The truth is
boring.'"

In an interview with EW.com, the book's author, Kelley, adds, "I was having
lunch with Ms. Esters, and she was talking about Oprah's lies. And I said,
'Well, are they really lies? They're more colorful stories.' And Mrs. Esters
is saying, 'No, those are lies. She said she was raised in abject poverty.
Oprah said she never had a pretty dress until she was successful. She was
beautifully dressed as a child.' I said, 'Is that the most important thing?'
And she looked at me and said, 'No, the most important thing is that we were
poor folks down there. But she was raised as an only child, and she had the
full and undivided attention of all of these adults who spoiled her to
death. And that was the reason she was so precocious and successful.'"

To hear more from Kelley on her new Oprah tell-all, watch the video below:


Read more:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/dailydish/detail?blogid=7&entry_id=61202#ixzz0l4rb7jSu

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/dailydish/detail?blogid=7&entry_id=61202
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