It’s Oprah day!
Well, it’s Oprah Winfrey’s birthday, so yes, it is now called Oprah Day!
The iconic talk show host and actress turns 65 years old today and we are in awe of everything she’s done in her life thus far. We also not-so-secretly want to hear her yell our names à la The Oprah Winfrey Show or hear her say, “you get a car!” on repeat.
The Mississippi native is one in a million and we are low-key obsessed with her. In addition to changing people’s lives with her charity and long-running series, Winfrey has had a brilliant acting career that we can’t overlook.
She’s slayed the big screen with roles in A Wrinkle in Time, Selma, Beloved, The Color Purple and more. She’s also produced numerous series including Greenleaf and Queen Sugar. Basically she is a superhuman and one of our many idols.
We aren’t alone if our love and adoration of the birthday girl.
Numerous celebrities who are both friends with her and admire her from afar have talked about how much they love the mogul over the years.
Stars like Mindy Kaling, Busy Philipps, Reese Witherspoon, Tiffany Haddish, Dr. Phil and more have not-so-subtly gushed about Winfrey and we totally get it…she is a total superstar.
Meryl Streep wants to see her run for president. Plus, Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and John Travolta all have nothing but nice things to say about her, so ya, Oprah is a pretty big deal.
See all of the stars who are just as big of fans of the birthday girl as you are below.
Happy birthday, Oprah! We will forever love you and if we could we’d gift you a car every single day.
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Gayle King
Everyone knows that Gayle King is Oprah Winfrey’s ride or die. They are inseparable, always share photos together and spend as many holidays and vacations with one another as possible. While they do talk about each other a lot, they rarely get choked up, but in June 2018, while discussing the opening of the “Watching Oprah: The Oprah Winfrey Show and American Culture” exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, King started to tear up.
“The bottom line is she really is a good human who just wants to do good in the world,” she said on CBS This Morning while discussing her best friend. “I’m full and I am so proud. There’s no one like her.”
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Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep is a legend in her own right so of course these two are pals. In fact, if Winfrey were to ever run for president, she has Streep’s full endorsement. If that’s not love we don’t know what is. “She launched a rocket tonight. I want her to run for president,” Streep told The Washington Post after Winfrey’s epic Golden Globes speech in 2018. “I don’t think she had any intention [of declaring]. But now she doesn’t have a choice.”
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Jimmy Kimmel
The late-night talk show host has known Winfrey for years and upon meeting her he instantly understood why she was so loved in the industry. “She’s really just a person who lights the whole building up. It kind of amazes me,” Jimmy Kimmel told TV Guide back in 2012.
“I love her! I really do. I know I sound like Julia Roberts and John Travolta speaking on her birthday show. But I get it now. I used to think they were being phony, but I feel the same way now,” he said. “It’s hard to describe, and I know most people who were fans of The Man Show will probably be horrified to hear this, but honestly, Oprah is an inspiring person.”
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Ellen DeGeneres
Following in Winfrey’s footsteps, Ellen DeGeneres is one of the most loved daytime talk show hosts ever and together, these two are unstoppable. Their friendship goes way back, with Winfrey playing DeGeneres’ therapist on her comedy Ellen back in the ’90s. In February 2018, her friendship was tested against Reese Witherspoon who claimed to be better friends with Winfrey, but after a hilarious game on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, DeGeneres came out on top to prove she’s Winfrey’s No. 1 pal…and that she clearly loves her more.
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Tom Hanks
Together these two Hollywood icons are dynamite, but Tom Hanks isn’t exactly ready to be the VP if Winfrey ever runs for president. He does however fully support everything she does. “I will carry [the nuclear briefcase] for the President of the United States, Oprah Winfrey,” Hanks told E! News in January 2018. “I will be in charge of that briefcase.”
While he doesn’t have any political aspirations of his own, Winfrey would have his vote and his wife Rita Wilson is also totally on board with her leading our nation. “Just as a fan of Oprah’s, I will say that she has spent her life trying to make the world a better place and I think she would want that for our country,” Wilson noted.
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Reese Witherspoon
In addition to joking about being BFFs with Winfrey (more so than DeGeneres), Witherspoon has named the media mogul as one of her biggest mentors and we totally get it. “Oprah comes to mind because I had the extraordinary opportunity to work with her this year on A Wrinkle in Time. Every free moment I would ask her what she’s learned. In a way, she has multiple Masters degrees in human behavior. She’s done over 34,000 interviews,” Witherspoon told Fast Company in 2018.
“I would always say to her, ‘what do people want? What’s the one thing that’s the connective tissue of humanity of people you’ve met?’ And she said, ‘people just want to be seen. They want to be acknowledged. They want to know that they were understood.’ And if I could help people do that I’d feel really, really proud of the work I’ve done in this world.”
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John Travolta
“To the most wonderful person in the world, Oprah Winfrey, our friend. And it’s not just because you went out of your way to make sure that 50,000 underprivileged children in South Africa had their first Christmas gift or that you want to put schools throughout that country, but also because you inject the spirit into our society of life. You care,” John Travolta said in a speech for Winfrey’s 50th birthday. “Your intelligence, your inspiration, and you do it all without judging, and because you treat everyone equally important, and this makes you a great American hero.”
“You represent the best of our country and what’s possible in our country, but, more importantly, you are a citizen of the world, and you are a hero to mankind. So we are better for knowing you, Oprah. We are,” he continued. “And to boot, you are beautiful, you are sexy. You’re talented, and we love you so much, we can’t take it.”
Jordin Althaus
Busy Philipps
Even though Busy Philipps has yet to hangout with Winfrey in person, her dreams of talking to the iconic talk show host came true in December 2018 when Winfrey called into her E! show, Busy Tonight.
“I’m gonna start crying! I can’t,” Philipps said to the audience when her phone rang. “I’m not ready for this.” When the Dawson’s Creek alum did speak with Winfrey she was definitley nervous but eventually got all of her comments out, including talking about Oprah’s famous “harvest day” before hanging up.
“I adore you! Have a wonderful holiday, Oprah.” Philipps concluded. “And, you know, give the dogs and Stedman [Graham] a kiss for me.”
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Maria Shriver
Maria Shriver has been friends with Winfrey since her days in Baltimore, and after 40 years of friendship the two are still big fans of each other’s work and dedication to their craft. When Winfrey did her Oprah Winfrey’s Farewell Show, Shriver was one of her final guests and even though she announced the separation from her husband Arnold Schwarzenegger at the time, which was sad, she also revealed why she loves Winfrey so much.
“For more than 30 years, you have bestowed the most amazing friendship on me. You’ve given me love, support, wisdom, and most of all, the truth,” Shriver said. “And I know I’m not alone in receiving those gifts from you. You’ve taught young women and men to focus on learning everything they can so that they can give the world everything that they are.”
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Tiffany Haddish
In February 2018, Tiffany Haddish revealed that she is a super fan of Winfrey after a surprise meeting on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. After telling DeGeneres about her idea to team up with Winfrey to create Tiff & O’s Vegetables, and show them at different farmer’s markets, she admitted she wrote the actress a ton of letters after meeting her on the set of The Eyes Are Watching God. That’s when Winfrey came out on stage and Haddish lost it.
“I love you,” Haddish says through her tears. “You are so, so, so good,” Winfrey said back to which Haddish added, “You told me that before in a dream.”
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Nate Berkus
Nate Berkus was a collaborator on The Oprah Winfrey Show and his world was forever changed by his gig on the series and his friendship with the talk show host. “I feel like I’ve graduated from the top talk-show school in the universe,” Berkus told New York Magazine in 2010 ahead of the premiere of his own show The Nate Berkus Show.
“Oprah and I have a really incredible friendship that has grown over the years and she has been absolutely accessible to me not only for questions about career but questions about day-to-day stuff,” he added.
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Mindy Kaling
After working with Winfrey on A Wrinkle in Time, Mindy Kaling is happy to able to call her one of her friends, but she is still in awe of the actress, so when she was in labor Winfrey is the one text she responded to, because, well, it’s Oprah! “I will say, when I was in labor with my baby I got a bunch of texts and the great thing about when you’re in labor is like, ‘Oh, I don’t have to respond to any of these people,'” Kaling explained when appearing on Busy Tonight.
“But she texted me about something about her magazine and I remember, I’m literally in labor, and was like, ‘Oh, of course, anything!’ ” Kaling continued. “I’m laying in Cedars-Sinai…I’m hooked up to the thing…and Oprah asked me something about the magazine and I didn’t even tell her I was in labor because I was like, ‘Anything you want. Of course!'”
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Julia Roberts
“I’ve made a lifelong friend in that woman. I think she’s one of the highlights of humankind. I’m lucky that she’s my pal,” Julia Roberts told Extra in 2011 about her close friend. Their friendship is so strong in fact that in 2013 when both were competing for a SAG Award the actress spilled that she couldn’t be happier to be in the same category as Winfrey.
“We’re going to get through this just fine,” she told E! News at the time with a big laugh. “Honestly, not to speak for her—Oprah Winfrey, she’ so fabulous—but we’re both just thrilled. This is such a beautiful moment.”
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Dr. Phil
In 2011, fans said goodbye to The Oprah Winfrey Show, but for some, like Dr. Phil McGraw who really got his TV start with Winfrey it was much more than the end of a talk show. The good news is that Dr. Phil and Winfrey are still very close and supportive of one another.
“She’s always been my mentor and helper on the Dr. Phil Show, and of course that will continue. And then I’m very involved in the Oprah Winfrey Network, doing a number of projects. So I’m one of those lucky few that gets to continue to have her in my life on an ongoing basis. So I feel very fortunate about that,” McGraw told NPR at the time.
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Ava DuVernay
Ava DuVernay and Winfrey have worked together on numerous projects now and their friendship is pure and joyful and we are jealous. “She was always talking about being your best self,” DuVernay told Sway’s Universe about Winfrey’s real life persona.
“She’s cool. In her day, she’s not dwelling on darkness ever. She don’t like to gossip. She don’t like to talk about people. She doesn’t even like to watch negative things,” she explained. “She just feeds herself with light and it works for her. So, I just try to watch that and I’m like, ‘what are you doing?'”
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