Eyebrows were raised earlier this month when she was confronted – in front of a swarm of paparazzi – by a young man claiming to be her ‘secret son’, and now this star has revealed the truth behind the bizarre incident.
Just days after Calvin Mitchell publicly claimed to be the secret child of Oprah Winfrey, the chat show queen has opened up about how they are connected.
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, the 61-year-old explained that she met Calvin when he was a little boy and, touched by his story, she proceeded to help him and his family by providing financial support.
“I met Calvin around the early ‘90s…I was doing a film for television called There Are No Children Here. We were shooting in the projects in Chicago and I was sitting on set during a break, and this cute little sparky-eyed boy came underneath the yellow tape to hand me a soda,” she recalled.
Oprah and her partner, Stedman Graham, were so ‘charmed’ by Calvin that they decided to pay for him to go to private school. They also secured a job for his mother.
After Calvin was expelled from school at the age of 16, Oprah paid for him to be sent to a private boarding school in Mississippi. However, after the teen made the decision to leave the school, Oprah felt there was nothing more she could do for him.
“I said, ‘Calvin, this is the moment. This is a seminal moment for you. I know you are 16 and can’t see the road ahead, but if you leave this school and refuse to get an education…there isn’t another school I can put you in. If you leave this school, I am done…And that was my last conversation with Calvin, in the early ‘90s,” she added.
Calvin set tongues wagging when he confronted Oprah while she was exiting the Late Show studio in New York, on October 15. Apologising, the now 35-year-old was heard telling her that it was ‘the only way he could make contact with her’.
