One of Oprah biographer Kitty Kelley’s selling points for her book was the fact that Oprah’s “aunt Katherine” (who in reality is Oprah’s cousin), Katherine Carr Esters, told her the name of Oprah’s biological father but swore her to secrecy. Since Kitty made this claim, an 84 year-old veteran from Mississippi has come forward to claim that he’s Oprah’s real dad and add that he’s tried to reach out to her in the past but never heard back.

The Daily Beast has an article following up on Kelley’s claim by an author who knows “Aunt Katherine” and has worked with her while doing research on an unrelated book. Journalist Alex Heard called Katherine to get her side of the story and was told that not only did she never confide in Kelley with the name of Oprah’s supposed dad, she also wishes she never talked to her. According to Katherine, Kitty completely misrepresented herself and the purpose of her book.

My friend Katharine Carr Esters sounded forlorn this week, saying she wished that everybody—including me—would leave her alone about a subject that’s made her life miserable lately: Kitty Kelley’s bestselling book Oprah, which churns up every scoop of dirt Kelley could find on Oprah Winfrey, who happens to be Esters’s second cousin. Esters let Kelley interview her over a three-day period in the summer of 2007. Now she wishes she could take it back.
“If I had it to do over again,” she wearily said over the phone, “I wouldn’t have talked to her at all.”

The 82-year-old Esters, who still lives near the central Mississippi town of Kosciusko—where Oprah spent six years of her childhood—was quoted several times, usually attached to non-flabbergasting statements that, she concedes, Kelley conveyed accurately. One was Esters’s observation that Oprah has sometimes exaggerated the level of poverty she endured as a kid—not enough toys, too many cockroaches on the walls, etc.—to self-dramatize her rags-to-riches triumph. Another was that Oprah repeatedly said “no” when Esters asked to be invited on her TV show to publicize Esters’s self-published 2005 memoir, Jay Bird Creek and My Recollections.

“She did refuse to have me on the show,” Esters told me in her distinctly non-whiney way. “She said my book was mediocre. That it was not something that would interest anybody to read.”

But the revelation that has her in a tailspin—and that she flatly denies having said—is something that isn’t found in the book. During an April 13th Today show interview with Natalie Morales, Kelley said Esters revealed the Big Oprah Secret to her: the identity of Oprah’s biological father. (Oprah’s male parent growing up was a man named Vernon Winfrey, but the identity of her bio-dad is reportedly still unknown to her, because her mother, Vernita Lee, won’t reveal it.) From the start, Kelley has been dangling this newsmaker as a mystery morsel, a Deep Throat appetizer we’re allowed to contemplate, even sniff, but not consume just yet.

“Kelley says Esters told her that . . . Vernon Winfrey is not her real father, and spilled the beans to her about who actually is,” MSNBC.com reported that day. “Appearing surprised by Kelley’s assertion, Morales said, ‘If you reveal all of her other secrets, why not say, “Oprah, this is your father?” ‘ “…

Once Esters’ denials [that she gave Kelley the name of Oprah's father] vibrated through the ether, Kelley issued a statement that returned serve forcibly, saying the interview happened, that Kelley knows the secret name, and that she’s personally anguished to hear that Esters is now disavowing it…

As for Kelley’s dispute with Esters, I pointed out that there seem to be only two possibilities: One of them was lying, or one of them somehow forgot what really happened. Kelley mentioned one other: That Esters has been stomped into submission by an 800-pound Harpo.

“Alex, I have written about the most powerful woman on the planet,” she said dramatically. “I’m sure that great pressure has been brought to bear on Mrs. Esters.” Did she have evidence for this claim, or was it just a hunch? A hunch. For her part, Esters says she hasn’t heard from Oprah since the blowup started.

We may never know who’s telling the truth. Is Kelley capable of lying? Um, yeah, I think so—entire episodes of The Larry King Show have been devoted to illustrating that proposition. Is Esters capable of forgetting? Probably. She sounds a lot older than she did just three years ago, which makes me worry about her health. The one thing I’m sure I don’t believe is that Kelley is especially torn up about having put this great old lady in a bind. If that were a real concern, she should have never opened her mouth.

[From The Daily Beast]

I think Natalie Morales nailed it when she asked why Kelley suddenly had a ping of conscience when it came to revealing the name of Oprah’s father but wasn’t bothered about dishing Oprah’s dirt in other areas of her life. Still, according to what Kelley has said during the press tour, a lot of the book was based on Oprah’s past interviews as source material. If she was just relaying information that Oprah had already revealed, and double-checking it with sources, you can see why Kelley might hold back when it came to revealing Oprah’s dad’s name. She may also have kept that information out of the book in order to use it as a salacious selling point while making herself seem somehow righteous for excluding it. I’m on Aunt Katherine’s side, though, and this article convinced me that Kelley is at least misrepresenting what Katherine told her.

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Kitty Kelley’s new Oprah biography is coming out tomorrow and while we’ve been hearing about it Kelley claims that there are plenty of outlets who refuse to give her any coverage. According to Kelley, she’s been denied interviews with Larry King, David Letterman, Charlie Rose, and Barbara Walters among others based on her subject material alone. She also had trouble getting her book published because so many people, particularly publishing companies, are scared of pissing off the almighty Oprah.

Advance details are out about Kelley’s book and there’s some dirt in there, particularly about Oprah’s childhood. Kelley said that Oprah’s cousin (who calls herself “Aunt Katherine”) told her that Oprah’s biological father is not Vernon Winfrey, the man who raised Oprah, but another guy she can’t disclose. Oprah’s cousin told Kelley all about it and swore her to secrecy. Oprah’s “Aunt Katherine” doesn’t believe Oprah was sexually abused as a child, either. Relatives often discount victims and that doesn’t mean much. (On the Today Show this morning, Kelley referred to Oprah’s abuse as the main factor in her teenage promiscuity, so it’s clear that she believes it happened.) As for whether Oprah is gay or not, Kelley calls her “asexual”:

On whether Oprah is gay
“I know people are expecting me to ‘out’ her. But I think she’s just asexual,” Kelley says. “She’s poured all of her energies into her career. And if she is, she is never ever, ever going to come out. So relax, people.”

Oprah’s maybe “elaborated” past
“And now she’s made me keep secrets,” says Kelley, who claims she knows who Winfrey’s real father is but won’t divulge it until Winfrey’s mother tells her daughter, something she has been unwilling to do for decades.

Kelley spent three days in Winfrey’s hometown, Kosciusko, Miss., chatting up Katharine Esters, Winfrey’s cousin who goes by “Aunt” Katharine, then talked to Vernon Winfrey in his Nashville barbershop. (He raised Oprah early on but says he’s not her father.)

Neither believes Winfrey’s stories about sexual abuse in her youth. (Winfrey says she was “continually molested” from age 9 until 14, and she did give birth to a baby boy at 15 — her uncle was suspected of being the father.)

“I don’t believe a bit of it,” Esters told Kelley. “No one in the family believes her stories (of sexual abuse) but now that she’s so rich and powerful everyone is afraid to contradict her.”

Kelley says she found that many of the stories Winfrey has told over the years may be “elaborated.”

“I tried to give both sides,” Kelley says. “Oprah’s stories are colorful and a bit over the top. Maybe they’re just little exaggerations.”

On getting denied for promoting the book
One problem facing Kelley this week is promoting her new biography. Many of Winfrey’s pals have circled their wagons. The View’s Barbara Walters, CNN’s Larry King, CBS’ David Letterman and PBS’ Charlie Rose have all refused to have Kelley on their shows.

“All said very openly that it was because of Oprah,” she says. “And they haven’t even had a chance to look at the book yet.” She is booked on the Today show today and Bill O’Reilly’s show Tuesday.

[From USA Today]

Another interesting tidbit from the book includes an alleged fling that Oprah had in the 1970s with muzak composer and talk show host John Tesh. Supposedly Tesh got freaked out about their interracial relationship and took off in the middle of the night. Kelley also claims that Oprah’s mother doesn’t have her daughter’s phone number and has to go through an assistant to talk to her.

Oprah never spoke to Kelley despite many attempts to interview her for the book, and many of Oprah’s friends, like Maya Angelou and Maria Shriver, declined to be interviewed as well. Hundreds of Oprah’s old colleagues and family members did grant interviews, though, most of them on the record. (Some had to necessarily speak anonymously due to the confidentiality clause Oprah makes all employees sign.) Judging from this advance excerpt from Oprah: A Biography, Kelley tries to give a balanced view of one of the world’s most powerful and a successful women. She brings some scandal to the table, though, just like Oprah’s been known to do in order to drum up interest in her show.