The media mogul cannot help but get emotional while recounting the terrifying incident that almost killed her grandmother, adding that this is the first time for her to talk about the moment.
- Apr 28, 2021
AceShowbiz - Oprah Winfrey is set to open up about her traumatic childhood in her upcoming appearance on "The Dr. Oz Show". In a new clip from the episode that is set to air on Thursday, April 29, the media mogul shares the terrifying moment when she was young that made her feel unsafe even while sleeping.
The 67-year-old begins her story by telling Dr. Oz that the incident happened when "my grandmother and I slept in the bed together." She goes on to add in the video, which is obtained by Entertainment Tonight, "My grandfather was in a room on the other side of the wall and one night in the middle of the night, my grandfather gets out of bed and comes into the room. And I wake up and he has his hands around my grandmother's neck and she is screaming."
Fortunately, Oprah's grandmother "manages to push him off of her and step over him." She goes on to say, "He falls. She steps over him and runs to the front door. I run out of the bed with her. It's pitch black in the middle of the night in rural Mississippi. And she goes out on the porch and she starts screaming 'Henry, Henry.' There is an old man who lived down the road that we call Cousin Henry, he was blind."
Oprah cannot help but get emotional, adding that this is the first time for Oprah to talk about the moment. "Cousin Henry comes down the road in the middle of the night to help my grandmother get my grandfather up off the floor," she divulges. "And after that my grandmother put a chair underneath the doorknob and some tin cans around the chair. And that is how we slept every night. I'm sleeping, I always slept with, listening for the cans. Listening for what happens if that doorknob moves."
During her appearance in the episode, the "What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience and Healing" author also talks about the guilty verdict for Derek Chauvin, calling it an emotional experience. Admitting that she "watched the verdict live - like so many other people around the world," Oprah shares, "I started to tear up and I asked myself, 'Where is this emotion coming from?' And I was having… flashbacks of Emmett Till and all the names that we've heard protesters speak for."
Emmett is a 14-year-old who was lynched in 1955 after a white woman accused him of flirting with her. "And so I wake in that morning like, what does that mean? And does that mean this whole trial is going to blow up?" she muses. "So I went to bed (after the verdict) thinking about Emmett Till and the fact that he never received justice. And this moment was a sacrifice for all of the people who didn't receive justice."
