Oprah Winfrey has built an enviable empire over the years and a network of endeavours tied to philanthropy and media production and distribution. The actress and former talk-show host turned 70 in January 2024 but shows no signs of slowing down.
A far cry from the Mississippi wood-frame shack she grew up in, Oprah now has numerous stunning multimillion-dollar residential properties in her bulging real estate portfolio and an estimated net worth of $3.5 billion (£2.7bn). She's also been busy in the film industry. Click or scroll to take a tour of Oprah's life and homes...
When Oprah does need to kick back and relax, she's spoilt for choice in terms of hideaway retreats. Back in 2001, she bought her Promised Land estate in Montecito after attending a party here and instantly falling in love with the tranquil 42-acre property.
She used her formidable powers of persuasion to get the owners Robert and Marlene Veloz to sell up. The estate wasn't actually on the market, but Oprah wasted no time writing out a cheque for almost $52 million (£40.8m), say reports. This picture was taken not long after Oprah began updating the home to her tastes.
Worth more than $100 million (£78m) today, the glorious Promised Land estate spans 70 acres thanks to some canny deals on neighbouring properties.
At its centre is Oprah's 23,000-square-foot mansion, an impressive neo-Georgian pile, and the amazing landscaped grounds include rose gardens, terraces and fountains.
As her forever home, Promised Land is where Oprah and her long-term boyfriend Stedman Graham love to spend time. Beautifully decorated and filled with mementoes, books and artwork, it's been lovingly put together over the years.
Oprah runs her business empire from here too, and is often posting pictures at home with her dogs on her Instagram page.
Oprah has been hands-on when it comes to giving the house a complete makeover.
In order to make the dining room a more relaxed and welcoming space, she ripped out the striped wallpaper and ornate antique furniture, replacing them with a beige colour scheme, a cream New England-style dresser and comfy upholstered chairs.
The kitchen is the heart of Oprah's mansion, a place where her friends can congregate and kick back.
The TV legend had the fireplace and pizza oven removed to free up more space, but left everything else as it was.
All in all, the mansion boasts several living rooms, a library, kitchen, two home theatres, a wine cellar, an office, six bedrooms and 14 bathrooms.
Seen here on New Year's Eve 2021, Oprah posted a video to her Instagram showing another glimpse of her fabulous dining table topped with Haitian food cooked by chef, Gregory Gourdet.
For Winfrey’s 2022 New Year’s Day brunch she posted another video walking from her beautifully revamped dining room through to a bright and airy sunroom, brimming with large potted plants and awash with shutter-styled walls. Tables were laden with fresh fruit, pastries and tasty buns.
As you can imagine, celebrities love a walk-in wardrobe and Oprah is no different. With regular TV appearances and public appearances for her charity work and many business ventures, the media mogul needs to look the part.
This smart room with fitted cabinets is where she stores her extensive clothing collection and she regularly shares videos with her followers while she's packing for one of her many trips around the world.
Oprah's renowned love of books makes itself felt in almost every room of the house, including her beautiful study.
In addition to the sprawling neo-Georgian mansion, Oprah's estate comprises orchards, a koi pond, tennis courts, a pool and pool house, as well as a two-bedroom Craftsman-style guest house spanning 4,000 square feet.
Oprah regularly reveals hidden corners of her estate, for instance when she was launching her book on happiness, Build the Life You Want in November 2023.
Sitting on a green wicker sofa upholstered with country-style cushions, the businesswoman chatted with co-author and social scientist Arthur Brooks about how to find contentment in life.
Of course, who can forget Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's exclusive interview with Oprah? Premiered in March 2021, it took place in a secret location near to the couple's mansion in Montecito, Santa Barbara, just a six-minute drive from Oprah's Promise Land estate. This secret location is very likely a part of the expansive home.
In 2003 Oprah paid $5.3 million (£4.1m) for two parcels of land on the Hawaiian island of Maui totalling 23.7 acres, not to mention a modest grey farmhouse, which she has since transformed into a ravishing vacation home.
Over the years, the TV icon has bought up acres of land and at least a dozen buildings in Maui, and is reported to have spent a total of $60 million (£49.5m) in the process.
The Maui estate now spans a colossal 163 acres and in 2010 she was granted permission to run a bed and breakfast on the site by the Maui County Council.
Oprah has made use of the fertile ground and amazing climate and now grows fruit, vegetables and flowers on the site.
The highlight of Oprah's blissful Hawaiian hideaway has got to be the gorgeous farmhouse with its wraparound veranda, which like the terrace in the upper level, makes for the ideal space to while away warm evenings in a rocking chair and take in the exceptional vistas.
She also loves hosting family and friends for island vacations. This happy holiday snap of Oprah, Stedman (left) and her friends at Christmas, gives a little glimpse of her signature style, with clean, bright interior decor. Even the tree can't top it!
It was her friend Bob, according to reports, that convinced her to buy land in Maui.
She has introduced many of her pals to the region since, including fellow TV star Gayle King, who joined Oprah for a spot of hiking in the hills in Kauai in 2023, to show off her “new knees”. Oprah had double knee surgeries in 2021.
The star was devastated in 2023 when wildfires ravaged the Hawaiian island and proved the deadliest of the last century in the US, according to the LA Times.
She teamed up with Dwayne Johnson, who is of Polynesian descent, to launch the People’s Fund of Maui to put money directly into the hands of local residents in need in the wake of the disaster.
Oprah snapped up a whopping 60 acres of land in the ski resort of Telluride in Colorado in 2014 and a year later acquired a sensational five-bedroom, six-and-a-half-bathroom contemporary ski chalet, photographed here by architectural photographer Joshua Johnson, which she bought from tech entrepreneur Bob Wall for $14 million (£11m) in a deal that included all furnishings.
The Queen of TV is an avid skier and has joyfully likened the pastime to being able to fly, so it was only a matter of time before she snagged a home near the slopes.
The living room is the most jaw-dropping space in the 8,700-square-foot property. It wows with a double-height ceiling with wood panelling, dramatic floor-to-ceiling windows and a huge stone fireplace.
The house, which has been decked out with state-of-the-art Smart technology that controls everything from the security to the lighting and heating, also features a family room with a library – an essential for its book-loving owner – billiards table and a movie projection screen that drops down from the ceiling and disappears when not in use.
With fine wood cabinetry and stainless-steel countertops, the open-plan kitchen is spacious and elegant.
Exposed steel beams lend the space a hip industrial feel though the warm wood cupboards and rustic stone wall prevent it from looking cold and clinical. The kitchen leads into a dining area that can seat up to eight people.
Talk about a house with a secret! It comes with a fabulous wine mine which is its pièce-de-résistance. The 56-foot cellar, which can store up to 1,600 bottles, was designed to resemble an old mine.
It delights with a rusty old ore car and track and is tricked out with a sound system that plays sounds of dripping water and creaking wood to add to the ambience.
Other highlights of the ultra-modern property include a $150,000 (£124k) glass walkway with fibre optic lights that change colour, a bathroom that contains a $70,000 (£57k) tub with an inline heating system that keeps water consistently warm, a smoke sauna and best of all, a private funicular railway that is reported to have cost $240,000 (£198k) pictured here.
Oprah expanded her Montecito real estate portfolio in December 2016 when she purchased the neighbouring property, an equestrian retreat called Seamair Farm. The talk show luminary parted with $28.9 million (£23.3m) to acquire the sizeable 23-acre plot, which shared a boundary with her Promised Land estate.
The estate came with a single-storey 1955 ranch house designed by architect Cliff May, dubbed the 'Father of the Californian ranch house', and captured in a video by the realtor. The home came with an open-concept interior with four bedrooms, five-and-half bathrooms, a wine cellar and a total of four fireplaces.
As a former horse farm, the estate came with top-notch equestrian facilities including riding rings, numerous paddocks, a multi-stall stable and three smaller buildings which may have been offices or guest quarters. Outside, there was a pool and extensive tropical gardens, including an avocado grove and orchard, a picturesque koi pond and two private water wells to boot, very useful for keeping things green during the hot Californian summers.
Oprah's next big real estate buy came in the summer of 2018 when the billionaire media magnate paid a bargain $8.3 million (£6.5m) for a 43-acre waterfront estate called Madroneagle on Washington's Orcas Island, a magnet for the ultra-wealthy craving peace and solitude.
The property, which was first put on the market in 2016, was listed for just under $12 million (£9.4m).
Former owner Kathleen Dickinson McDowell was by all accounts thrilled to sell the property to Oprah who she felt would be a great caretaker.
Blending in beautifully with its surroundings, the main 8,000-square-foot house, which was designed by Dickinson McDowell and her late husband, was built using reclaimed wood and local sandstone, making it a wonderfully sustainable home.
The eco mansion, which is nestled within a calming Asian-style garden, has a total of four bedrooms and five bathrooms, and looks out onto its very own beach.
The home's open-plan living room is simply divine. The high-ceilinged space seriously impresses with reclaimed beams, exposed stone walls and an enormous fireplace. Interestingly, the floorboards were gleaned from the original Sears building in Oprah's former stomping ground of Chicago.
The kitchen is totally Oprah-worthy and hands-down a fantastic space for the TV tycoon to hone her culinary skills. Cooking is one of her favourite hobbies after all.
Its standout features range from an enormous wood-fired pizza oven to a massive centre island and charmingly mismatched country-style cabinetry.
Book-loving Oprah would have obviously been very taken with the home's snug reading nook. The comfy space, which is fitted with a number of capacious bookcases and dressers, looks like an exceedingly pleasant space in which to get lost in a gripping novel or to flick through a magazine or two.
The home's bedrooms are just as cosy and this one delights with heart-stopping waterfront views. However, in 2021, Oprah sold her stunning estate in an off-market deal for a reported $14 million (£11.5m). Wally Gudgell, the agent who represented Oprah in the sale, said: “They were in the process of remodelling and they just realised in that process they were never going to be able to use it properly and it doesn’t make any sense.”
While the property was not formally listed, the deal marks the highest price ever paid for an Orcas Island property, sources familiar with the sale told the Biz Journal.
Oprah's then acquired actor Jeff Bridges' former home in Montecito. Like Seamair Farm, the ranch, which spans four acres, borders the Promised Land estate.
The TV legend clinched the deal in November 2019, paying $6.85 million (£5.4m) to secure the property adjacent to her own.
Oprah got herself another bargain having paid the same price Bridges bought the ranch for in 2014, though the actor spent a fortune remodelling the Spanish Revival home following a landslide in 2018 that caused extensive damage.
In fact, the property was originally listed by Bridges for almost $8 million (£6.2m).
Bridges carried out a tasteful restoration of the house, which was designed by celebrated Californian architect James Osbourne Graig and constructed in 1919.
This living room with its whitewashed walls, vaulted wooden ceiling, large lattice windows and generously sized fireplace has a minimal, elegant yet cosy feel.
The rustic yet pared-back style continues in the kitchen. We're sure Oprah adores the wooden ceiling that features several skylights, along with the custom-made wood cabinetry and the marble-topped centre island.
Like the impeccable living room, the kitchen is simple and minimal though manages to be a warm and inviting space.
The classy theme carries into the master suite. The room enchants with exposed beams, bay windows and French doors that lead into the blissful backyard.
The suite also features a supersized walk-in wardrobe and bathroom, which contains a deep-soaking tub to relax and unwind in.
Outside there's a pool and spa area, pool house and red brick terrace, as well as a carriage house that serves as an art studio, and an all-important private well.
But Winfrey didn't stop there, adding to her Montecito property collection just two years later...
In early 2021, the Queen of Daytime TV splurged on another Montecito residence. Splashing out a reported $10.5 million (£8.2m) on a Tuscan-style farmhouse complete with two cottages, Oprah will have enjoyed panoramic ocean views and a driveway surrounded by lush landscaping. But does she still live there?
Oprah’s Montecito home caught the eye of another VIP, who snapped it up in August 2022 in an off-market deal, just 18 months after Oprah purchased it herself.
The NY Post reported that Jennifer Aniston splashed out just under $14.8 million (£11.7m) on the Tuscan-style farmhouse main residence, while Winfrey’s longtime personal trainer bought the other half of the estate, comprising two cottages, for $2.3 million (£1.8m), providing Oprah with an impressive $6.5 million (£5m) profit.
On top of the real estate eye candy we've featured, Oprah is said to own a couple of modest properties in Chicago and Nashville, as well as possibly additional holdings we don't know about.
Here she enjoys some chef-made coconut and pineapple-soaked cake on her 70th birthday in her Montecito garden under a fabulous fringed sun hat. We can’t wait to see what other properties our favourite host might decide to flip or keep!
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