In October 2010,Oprah Winfreylearned a massive secret about her family tree: She had a half-sister named Patricia whom she had never known about.
Leegave birth to Patriciain Milwaukee in 1963 andgave her up for adoption. Winfrey was living with her father in Tennessee at the time. Winfrey and Patricia’s mother Vernita Leedied on Thanksgivingin Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at age 83.
Oprah Winfrey with her mom Vernita Lee and sister Patricia.OWN Communications
Patricia was in the foster care system until age 7, when she was adopted. Patricia, a single mother, had daughter Aquarius at age 17 and son Andre six years later.
“I received this big old package of information in the mail,” Patricia explained about her search efforts onThe Oprah Winfrey Showin 2011. “And it has all of my birth information in it. I was like, ‘Oh my god. I have a family.’”
Patricia went to a restaurant in Wisconsin that Winfrey’s niece owns in an attempt to connect with her birth mother’s family. A DNA test showed that Patricia and the niece were related.
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When Winfrey asked her mother if she had placed a child up for adoption, Lee initially denied having done so but later acknowledged it.
Patricia met Lee in October 2010 and met Winfrey on Thanksgiving in 2010. “It was one of the greatest surprises of my life,” Winfrey said on her talk showin 2011. “It left me speechless.”
In 2013, Winfrey gushed about Patricia on OWN’sOprah’s Next Chapter. “I think she’s been just a remarkable human being,” Winfrey said.
“That was a new experience for me to be in a relationship with somebody who actually didn’t want anything but was just there to be supportive of me,” Winfrey continued. “So it’s been really great. Really great.”
source: people.com
