Oprah Winfrey: The remarkable reign of the queen of television

As she prepares to sit down with Harry and Meghan for their first interview since quitting as senior royals, Sean O’Grady takes a look back at the extraordinary life of one of America’s best loved celebrities

The Oprah Effect: Winfrey is the planet’s leading influencer (Getty)

Why on earth, many will wonder, are their formerly royal highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Sussex going on a talk show? Even – or indeed especially – on a talk show hosted by the friendly Oprah Winfrey, the Queen Empress of chat, and responsible over her long and glittering reign for shows with themes such as “when families break open”; “suburban teen prostitutes”; “my husband is not my child’s father”; and, of course, the classic “diet dreams come true”, the one in 1988 when she came out on stage hauling a little red trolley with 67lbs (30kg) of animal fat loaded on it, representing her recent victorious weight loss, in all fairness a classic daytime TV moment. Come to think of it, the first one, at any rate, might be quite appropriate for members of the House of Windsor to reflect on, sad to say.

The answer is easy, says Oprah: “validation”. That, Winfrey herself has shrewdly pointed out, is the one thing that the 35,000 or so people who’ve appeared on her programmes all have in common. Adulterers, child molesters, members of the Ku Klux Klan, presidents, soap stars, the cast of Seinfeld, the lot. She’s hosted everyone from Michael Jackson and Lady Gaga to Barack Obama and Nelson Mandela, from Tina Turner to Liberace, and she and they all know what they’re there for. When Lance Armstrong wanted to confess his cheating, he chose Oprah as his priest.