Oprah Winfrey Has Secret Son? Talk Show Host Speaks Up
It was a shocking turn of events when Winfrey was ambushed after filming an episode of "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" by truck driver Calvin Mitchell claiming to be his secret son. The tabloid set-up shook the media mogul, who talked to Entertainment Tonight to clear up the speculation.
"I met Calvin around the early '90s, I think it was 1992," she began, confirming Mitchell was not her birth son. "I was doing a film for television called 'There Are No Children Here.' We were shooting in the projects in Chicago and I was sitting on set during a break, and this cute little sparkly-eyed boy came underneath the yellow tape to hand me a soda. I was so charmed by him that I started talking to him about his family, his school life, and found out that he was in a situation where his mother didn't have a job and they were stuck in the projects."
In true Oprah fashion, she reached out to the young boy and tried to help him and his family. Winfrey shared how she helped Mitchell's mother find a job and enrolled the young boy in two different private schools, which he eventually dropped out of.
She continued, "I said, 'Calvin, this is the moment. This is a seminal moment for you. I know you are 16 and can't see the road ahead, but if you leave this school and refuse to get an education — I have tried to offer you an education twice — there isn't another school I can put you in. If you leave this school, I am done. There is nothing else I can do.' ... And that was my last conversation with Calvin in the early '90s."
Although she was able to recognize the boy she knew during the tabloid run-in, Winfrey didn't immediately realize the whole encounter was a setup by Mitchell and the tabloids.
"When I realized the whole thing was a setup, I was no longer interested in speaking to him," Winfrey confirmed. "I wouldn't say [I'm] hurt, I wouldn't go so far as to be hurt. Disappointed? Yeah."
The estranged boy talked to Radar Online, saying the media mogul wanted to adopt him, but his mother refused. Still, Mitchell grew close with both Winfrey and her partner Stedman Graham. When he dropped out of school, he claimed the television host cut him out of her life, leading him to be depressed and suicidal.
"If it were my child, regardless of what that child did, they still would be a part of my life. Oprah and I had grown so tight that I thought she'd be a part of my life — forever."
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