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Friday, 30 October 2015

Oprah addresses 'Secret Son' report...

This week , Oprah Winfrey was "ambushed" by her "secret son" after a taping of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, the former talk show host revealed how she met Calvin Mitchell (as a little boy right) in the early 90's while she was filming the TV movie There Are No Children Here.

According to her, She was taken by the boy after he offered her a diet coke and wanted to help when she found out he and his family were stuck in the projects. 

She enrolled Mitchell in a local private school and moved the family to a better home. But hope turned to disappointment when the school principal informed her that the boy had been missing classes. The family's excuse was that they couldn't get up on time to get the boy to school.

She discovered that his family didn't have any clocks in the house. Her Partner Stedman and herself went to K-Mart that moment, got a bag full of clocks, came back to the house, taught them how to set the alarm and all that. That however didn't prevent Mitchell from getting expelled from the school.

"I had a long conversation with him about how disappointed I was but I was going to give him another chance. I found a school in Mississippi that was a private boarding school because I thought if I could remove him from the environment that he'd been accustomed to growing up in, that maybe that would be helpful to him."

However, the boy again voiced discontent with the school and she had her last conversation with him in the early nineties.

That was until Winfrey got wind that the young man had sold his story to a tabloid years after
"When I realized the whole thing was a setup, I was no longer interested in speaking to him."

Although Winfrey says she wasn't hurt by the experience, she did admit she was left disappointed by the boy again, but counts it as a learning experience.

"I learned from that experience, if you really want to change somebody's life, you gotta be able to spend enough time with them to change the way they think about what their life can be. It isn't enough to give a person a new life or money or a new car, you have to teach them how to fish themselves."

53 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Dis words mak a lot of sense "It isn't enough to give a person a new life or money or a new car, you have to teach them how to fish themselves."

      All d best to her and God bless her...

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    2. He made his decision, please he shld live with it, period!

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    3. That boy is shameless, irresponsible and an ingrate.

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  2. Hmmmmnn!!! Aunty Oprah please forgive the stupid boy!

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  3. Hmmmmnn!!! Aunty Oprah please forgive the stupid boy!

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  4. Well said. She has really tried her best for the boy. Linda take note!

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  5. Well said. She has really tried her best for the boy. Linda take note!

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  6. Well Oprah! You really can do no wrong!

    Magicblackxxl@gmail.com

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  7. Idiot. Free boarding school to make something of yourself and you blew it. Projects.

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  8. Ehya!! That's how people spoil opportunities

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  9. Some people ruin it for others with their greed and disloyalty! Twat

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  10. Some ppl can't just make use of opportunity when it calls their ways....
    Now he's claiming Oprah's son

















    #It WiLL onLY geT beTTer
    #It mUsT eNd iN prAiSe

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  11. Well said... Mindset is everytn!

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  12. This is one of the reasons most celebrities are scared of helping people, very shameful of the boy and his family.


    ~BONARIO~says so via NOKIA LUMIA

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  13. Wow. Opportunity 3 times. She really tried for him. He has now realized his mistakes

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  14. Seen. You have not contact us since august sister Linda.

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  15. I'm curious to know how the boy turned out on his own? I bet he is either in jail or dead.

    Dame Oprah, you tried. You don't have to teach him how to fish. No be you born am. That's the job of the parents; Unfortunately, they are just as useless as the boy.

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  16. You can take a boy out of the ghetto but you cant take the ghetto out of him... Double your hustle

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  17. She tried! I wish l had that golden opportunity!
    He is a man now, he should let her be.

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  18. Mumu boy, opportunity weh people d find

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  19. Some people are addicted to poverty.Anyways its true what they say about bathing pigs!

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  20. Oprah shud just ignore tho its important to clear the air. Guess she couldn't take the projects out of the man

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  21. God will bless you but please give him another chance

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  22. Self Motivation. If the covering of groundnut is bad, the groundnut inside is likely to be bad. What do you expect from the son of drug addict? The traits is in the blood.

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  23. No good deed goes unpunished.
    --Oscar Wilde

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  24. This goes to show that you can't help someone who isn't willing to help him/herself. The young man practically blew his chances. Get a life bro, you are a man and an adult now.





















    #TeamBlessed#

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  25. Davido driver,which time you dey take drive your Oga sef? Na ur poor comments full everywia

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  26. GOD Bless You Ma! http://www.bummyla.com

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  27. Oya Linda ngwa adopt me and show Oprah how it is done:)

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  28. Pls forgive and forget. TIMILEYIN BLESSING

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  29. Prolly the Dude's gene was already contaminated.
    Poor lad.

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  30. Opportunity they say comes only once

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  31. Eni to Lori ko ni fila...the guy doesn't look like a normal person

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  32. Eni to Lori ko ni fila...the guy doesn't look like a normal person

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  33. Oprah, well said. Still, now that the boy has got his 1 minute of fame (again), he should put his life together and make something of himself. He is not a small boy anymore. Having accomplished something, he can now go to Oprah and tell her, "Aunty Oprah, I am sorry for my mistakes, I have put my life together, see me now - working, married, my kids etc." Can they meet the woman who helped change my life around and gave me a chance to get to call you 'mom' again?

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  34. This was what Trump was talking about the other day and people were calling for his head. Here is a young man given the opportunity to rewrite his family history, instead he prefers wearing oversized trousers and jackets galivanting the ghetto doing nothing.
    And now himself and the mother think they can blackmail Oprah for money. They have made a huge mistake rather they will died in frustration because they have sentenced their benefactor to "death". What a tragedy?

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  35. This was what Trump was talking about the other day and people were calling for his head. Here is a young man given the opportunity to rewrite his family history, instead he prefers wearing oversized trousers and jackets galivanting the ghetto doing nothing.
    And now himself and the mother think they can blackmail Oprah for money. They have made a huge mistake rather they will died in frustration because they have sentenced their benefactor to "death". What a tragedy?

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  36. Aww! Oprah has such a good heart! Am sure she'd already forgiving him for his stupidly wasteful past but she should go ahead and give him just one last chance. He was quite young and was manipulated by his environment and lack of moral parenting. Am sure he must have learnt his lessons the hard way by now!

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  37. What she should have done was to help the parents to be self employed or get good jobs in order to look after five kids rather than try to help one out of Five kids from a very poor home with low ways of thinking. It is like telling someone who has never read a book to go to a private school where he can never fit in. I hope he is not on cheap drugs!!!

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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the comment writers alone and does not reflect or represent the views of Linda Ikeji.

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