NEWSUnauthorized Biographer Kitty Kelley Says "I Believe Oprah"
April 16 2010, Published 9:40 a.m. ET
Kitty Kelley opens up to PopEater on her controversial new book, Oprah: A Biography goes into detail on Oprah Winfrey's sex life, struggles with weigh, and childhood abuse. "Her family, I think, is in great denial of her sexual molestation," Kitty said. "I believe Oprah."
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While there many parts of Kitty's book that were shocking, Kitty was saddened by some of revelations she wrote about.
"We're talking about her secrets and at one point in her life, she was ready to get rid of some of those secrets when she was writing her autobiography. She was going to talk in detail about the men who had abused her, and she was going to name all of her abusers. And she was going to lay great blame on her mother for not taking better care of her. And she was also going to reveal that she was, in her words, a prostitute," Kitty explained to PopEater. "I felt that was really a very harsh description that she would give herself."
"She was literally saying that she was a prostitute," she added. "You know, she had talked about her sex abuse and her promiscuity in the past, but she had never used the word prostitute."
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Which Kitty feels is why Oprah ultimately decided not to write her autobiography.
"Yes, that's exactly why. Because friends really advised her against it," she said. "For the American people, she stood on a pedestal at that point, and there was no reason to give someone a club. I talked to one of the publishers who wanted to buy the book and who had seen it and she said, "You don't have to say this about yourself.'"
"Her family, I think, is in great denial of her sexual molestation. I believe Oprah. I know that she was sexually abused because she shows all the scars of someone who has been abused," she said. "Now, her family doesn't believe her, but that's part of her life story. That she wasn't believed, that there was nobody she could confide in. I happen to believe she was and that comes through in the book."
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So why does Kitty think the public is so fascinated with Oprah's sexual orientation?
"One reason is because she's made it part of the conversation," Kitty explained. "She issued a press release over 10 years ago saying, "'I'm not gay, I'm not gay, I'm not a lesbian." To do something that, immediately makes your sexuality open to question."
"She's been engaged to Stedman since 1992 and has never married him. She is seen far more often in public with Gayle King than she is with Stedman. So if you put those two things together, then you have public questions," she added. "I think Oprah teases the sexuality question a lot. Her father said to me, "She'll never marry Stedman. Ever!" If you asked me to classify her, I'd have to say she was asexual in this stage of the game at 56 years old."
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Kitty also addressed Oprah's much talked about struggles with weight and included sharing a story about Oprah eating two pecan pies in one hour.
"I think that's something that a woman would pick up on, because that is just the definition of gluttony that I think that women will pick up on, because we're so possessed by our weight and how we look," Kitty said of why she included that in the book. "We're constantly depriving ourselves, so we can weigh three pounds less. So to eat two pecan pies in the span of an hour, it just blows the mind."
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Kitty has no plans to start writing authorized biographies — She's going to continue to blow our minds with unauthorized ones!
"No, never. You'd have to be controlled," Kitty said of writing an authorized biography. "And you'd have to shade the truth a bit. It just would be pureed, if you know what I mean. So, I wouldn't do it."
