News October 05, 2021
Oprah Winfrey Says She Only Has 3 Close Friends!

Oprah Winfrey has a tight-knit community of friends, and that’s just how she likes it!
In an interview with the “Making Space with Hoda Kotb” podcast on Monday alongside longtime pal Maria Shriver, the host of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” revealed she only has three close friends: Shriver, CBS anchor Gayle King, and trainer Bob Greene.
“I don’t have a lot of friends,” the chairwoman and CEO of Harpo Productions said. “Everybody knows Gayle [King]. There’s Gayle, there’s Maria, there’s Bob [Greene]. And that’s about it, you know? Gayle and Maria, I met around the same time; Gayle and I [have been friends for] 42 years. Maria and I [have also been friends for] 42 years.”
“I never really expanded that circle until recently,” she continued. “You know, I had become friends with a couple of people in my later adult life in the past five years.”
In their sit-down, Winfrey said she met Shriver in the bathroom of news station WJZ-TV where they both had worked.
“I was coming in to do the morning cut-ins and she was doing evening magazine and had been up all night. [She] was in the bathroom, literally, splashing water on her face, and we started a conversation,” Winfrey told host Hoda Kotb. “I forever think that that was, like, a divine moment that happened because she was one of my true, grounded friendships that carried me through my entire career.”
Shriver later described her bond with Winfrey as “deep, simple, low-maintenance, trustful, loyal, constant, consistent, honest, tried and true.” Additionally, Shriver says Winfrey’s small acts of kindness have strengthened their relationship through the years.
“It was so moving to me because... that’s not how I grew up, you know? Nobody brought a cup of coffee or a cup of water to me,” Shriver said. “In a funny way, even though I had a very close relationship with my mother, I wasn’t nurtured, mothered in that way, right? And [Oprah] wasn’t mothered in her own way. But I think, in a way, we have mothered each other.”
As for Gayle, Oprah not only serves as her best friend but as the godmother for Gayle’s daughter Kirby Bumpus!
In January of this year, Oprah opened up her Montecito, California, home for Kirby’s wedding to husband Virgil Miller.
Just last month, Gayle broke the news that Kirby and Virgil had welcomed their first child, a baby boy named Luca Miller!
“[Luca is] very, very cute, so congratulations to my favorite daughter, my favorite son-in-law. Now I have a favorite grandson! I’m over the moon,” Gayle said about her family on “CBS This Morning.”