If you’d already started making posters with the slogan “Let Oprah Make America Great Again” in the hopes of a 2020 presidential bid by Oprah Winfrey, the media mogul has addressed those rumours once and for all.
Appearing on the cover of the August issue of British Vogue, Winfrey, shuts down the possibility of a run at politics, saying it would “kill” her.
“In that political structure – all the non-truths, the bullshit, the crap, the nastiness, the backhanded backroom stuff that goes on – I feel like I could not exist,” Winfrey says. “I would not be able to do it. It's not a clean business. It would kill me.”
Winfrey, 64, also discusses the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and abuse, following her now famous Time’s Up speech at this year’s Golden Globe Awards. And of course, she’s looking at the issue in the most ‘Oprah’ way possible.
"People talk about 'these are such dark times', but what if we shift the paradigm? Because I see it differently,” she asserts. “I see, 'Isn't this remarkable that we're waking up?' For years, women have endured craziness. This is what's happening to people. They're allowing themselves to not just become corroded, but to become hysterical. You've got to lean to the happiness."
The cover was shot by photographers Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott and styled by Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful, who has made a point of featuring more diverse women on the magazine’s cover since he took over editorship in November 2017.
Wearing a custom-made Stella McCartney taffeta gown, comparisons have already been made to royalty, with website The Root speculating “there must be royalty inside her DNA”. All we can say is, bow down.
