Oprah Winfrey‘s massively successful career began in the 80s, and now she’s named her biggest work-related regret.
The 72-year-old media mogul, who just revealed her real name, appeared on Keke Palmer‘s Baby, This Is Keke Palmer podcast this week, where she cringed at the ‘mistake’ she made while filming The Oprah Winfrey Show.
In a BTS clip shared on Instagram, Palmer began singing Winfrey’s 1998 theme song Run On, which the host recorded herself, causing the multi-billionaire to wince with embarrassment.
‘Girl, please,’ Winfrey reacted, as Palmer started singing the upbeat jingle. ‘Ok, that is one of the mistakes of my career.’
She explained about how the recording came to be: ‘I was trying to decide, am I going to end the show or not end the show? And then I had a little talk with Jesus, and Jesus said, “You gotta keep going.” And so I said, “You know, there’s this song. It’s an old spiritual.”
‘And then we realized, I can’t sing… even though I took the singing lessons.’
Oprah Winfrey’s massively successful career began in the 80s, and now she’s named her biggest work-related regret
The 72-year-old media mogul appeared on Keke Palmer’s Baby, This Is Keke Palmer podcast this week, where she cringed at the ‘mistake’ she made while filming The Oprah Winfrey Show; pictured in 1992
The track was used as the intro to The Oprah Winfrey Show’s season 13 episodes, and featured an accompanying music video.
Winfrey even enlisted a church choir to help bring the song to life, and the video B-roll showed her in the recording studio.
‘It was bad. You know it was bad,’ Winfrey told Palmer.
The show aired from 1986 to 2011 and featured thousands of guests as the journalist-turned-host platformed stories from everyday people and celebrities alike.
Winfrey later launched her own channel, Oprah Winfrey Network, which is still active.
She shocked fans in the Keke Palmer episode as she announced that her birth name is actually Orpah.
‘It was Orpah from the Bible,’ she told Palmer, explaining that her name ended up changing when she was a child.
After Palmer asked how it became Oprah, the media personality said, ‘It’s not what made me. I was a kid. Nobody knew how to spell it.’
‘So, it turned out on my birth certificate, it’s Orpah,’ she detailed. ‘And then people started calling me Oprah. And so it’s just the difference between the P being before the R or after the R. So once they started with Oprah, that’s it.’
Winfrey also revealed she was around age 20 when she learned that the name her family and friends were calling her was different than what was on her birth certificate.
She laid out the biblical history of the unusual moniker.
‘Ruth, first chapter, 14th verse. It’s that whole Ruth and Naomi story,’ she said.
‘And you know, Ruth said, “Wherever thy goest, I will go.” And then Orpah said, “I’m going back. I’m sorry. I can’t. Too long. The road’s too long.”‘
Winfrey then highlighted that Palmer also has a different name on her birth certificate than the one she’s known for – Lauren Keyana Palmer.
‘I’m so happy that you knew that!’ Palmer exclaimed.
