Oprah credits faith as key to her success

Television icon Oprah Winfrey has credited her church upbringing for being the catalyst for her successful global media career.

The American talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist, was born into poverty in rural Missisippi to a teenage single mother. Speaking in a video to promote her new series Belief, which is about the “ongoing search to connect with something greater than ourselves”, she said it was her Christian upbringing which helped define her path in broadcast media.

“Church was our entertainment and church was our comfort, and church was our sanctuary. And being with church people was how we served our community,” she said. “The hours and hours and hours and hours and hours that I spent in that little white church by the red dirt road in Kosciusko, Mississippi, formed the interior meaning for my life. Actually, as I’ve often said, it’s how my broadcasting career began, speaking in front of the church.”