Oprah & Her Newly Found Half Sister

Wouldn’t it be weird to find out later in life you had a long lost half sister? On Monday, Oprah shared with the world that she in fact had a half sister who had been given up for adoption when she was nine years old. Oprah at the time was living with her father and never knew about her half sister. She never even knew mom was pregnant.


Patricia (Oprah’s Half Sister) always longed to be apart of a family and started her quest into finding who her birth mother was. She had suspicions that she was Oprah’s sister. Her son researched Oprah’s history and found out from her records that things matched up.

Patricia tried contacting her birth mother through the agency but the agency told her, her mother didn’t want to meet her. On that same day Patricia was watching the news that just happened to be on Oprah’s mom, who talked about two children she had lost, and the dates matched her papers from the adoption agency. Oprah’s mom said one of her children who died was also named Patricia, which she also knew she had a sister with the same name.

Patricia found a restaurant owned by her dead sister’s daughter. (Oprah’s niece) They took a DNA test to prove for sure. Sure enough, she was her aunt.

Patricia knew since 2007 that she and Oprah were half sisters, and never considered selling the story.

The two met for the first time at Thanksgiving.

Oprah confronted her mom about why she never told her about her half sister, and she said she was embarrassed that she gave up her baby because she couldn’t care for her, and get off of welfare.
Oprah said this about her half sister:
"She coming into the family at this time has been a great peace offering, a great symbol of peace-making in this family," Winfrey said. "I would say I see her as a gift." quote from People.com

This is a pretty amazing story. Have you ever known someone this has happened too? Meeting a sister or brother you knew nothing about? Do you know someone this happened to? How would you react?