Oprah Winfrey’s Mother, Venita Lee Is Dead!

International media mogul Oprah Winfrey has been reported to have been bereaved when her 83-year-old mother, Venita Lee passed away on Thursday, on the Thanksgiving holiday.

First announced via Oprah’s niece Alisha Hayes’ Facebook page, Ms Lee was said to have died at her Milwaukee home and a private funeral has already been held.

Oprah’s childhood was troubled- as she has said herself many times- as her mother was a teenager when she had her first daughter, who will grow up to be the most powerful woman in media. Oprah was raised by her grandmother and was six when she was first lived with her mother. Soon after she was sent to live with her father, a period in her life that was marked by multiple rapes by uncles’ of hers and a pregnancy at 14. (The baby died after a week.)

Oprah’s relationship with her mother was often contentious but the two always reconciled and she once appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show for a makeover.