Oprah Winfrey strikes back at critics who say her revelation of a half-sister she never knew about was a strategic move for TV ratings. INSIDE EDITION has the details.
Oprah Winfrey is speaking out about her relationship with her newly discovered sister, Patricia.
"She's a little angel baby sister. I have a baby sister! I feel that I really do like her. I am open to building a relationship with her. I would say it's off to a very good start, she's so sweet Gayle," Oprah says to her best friend Gayle.
Appearing today via webcam on her best friend Gayle King's talk show on The Own Network. Oprah revealed that Patricia has instantly become part of the family and has been caring for their ailing mom, Vernita.
"Our mother has had a mini-stroke. Because she is in Milwaukee and she lives not that far from Vernita, she has been there everyday trying to help her, so she's sort of jumped in," says Oprah.
Oprah says she and her long time boyfriend Stedmond Graham, immediately got a good vibe from Patricia when they first met her at a Thanksgiving family dinner.
She also opened up about a private dinner she and Patricia had the night before they made the bombshell announcement.
"I had her to dinner at my house the night before we taped the show. We had conversations about her family and how I can be helpful," says Oprah.
The TV titan became visibly upset at suggestions online that she introduced her secret sister to the world as a ratings ploy.
"The thing that really irritates me is people saying that I did this for ratings," Oprah says.
Oprah says she rejected the idea of holding the show for the all important sweeps ratings in February.
"The very first day I came back, I told the story. I said to my team, I am only doing this to tell the truth, get the story out. Doing it for any other reason is exploiting it," says Oprah.
Now we're learning new details of Patricia's difficult childhood.
After Oprah's mom gave Patricia up for adoption, she was shuffled between four foster homes before her seventh birthday. Despite her reunion with her mother and world famous half-sister, there is one important family member she hasn't met yet, her father.
Kelley says, "It was not a surprise to me at all. I learned about it ten days before hand from people inside the family."
Author Kitty Kelley wrote the unauthorized biography about Oprah, which just came out in paperback.
"Not surprised I didn't know about the sister while researching my book, and also not surprised she exists because there are so many secrets in that family," says Kelley.
