Oprah Explains Why She Makes So Few Public Appearances With Stedman

For as much as we may feel like we know Oprah Winfrey, for as much as she serves as an inspirational figure for legions of us, there is relatively little known about the nature of her relationship with partner Stedman Graham. Graham and Winfrey met in 1986 at a charity event, and have been together ever since (they were engaged in 1992, but ultimately decided against marriage). But the two rarely make public appearances together, and Winfrey does not often share details about their dynamic (this made his comments after the 2018 Golden Globes, that Winfrey would “absolutely” run for president, all the more notable and newsworthy).

In the first episode of Goop’s podcast, released Thursday, the company’s C.E.O., Gwyneth Paltrow, scored a pretty monumental first guest: yes, as you were probably able to guess from the first paragraph of this post, that guest is Oprah. Paltrow and Winfrey chat for about 75 minutes (!) about a wide range of topics, and both women get quite candid about the current #MeToo movement, and their interactions with Harvey Weinstein (Paltrow reflects on how her experiences with the film producer may have in fact caused her shift away from acting over the past decade).

Winfrey shares several lessons that were fundamental to shaping who she has become, including the book that changed her life, and Maya Angelou's wisdom. And she also discusses the reason why she decided at a certain point to stop making appearances with Graham. Winfrey shares that she used to find the false tabloid stories written about her to be quite bothersome, and would ask Angelou for advice (she also joked that she used to be glad when Paltrow was on tabloid covers because it meant “the heat” had been taken off her for a week). “It has nothing to actually do with you,” Angelou would tell her, “It has to do with whoever sat down at that computer that moment.” Winfrey continues, “It’s also why I stopped making as many public appearances with Stedman because I realized that every time there’s a new photograph, there’s a new story.” At this, Paltrow—no stranger to theorizing about her personal relationships—chimes in.

Paltrow: “It’s an invitation.”

Winfrey: “It’s an invitation. You got that too, right?”

Paltrow: “Yeah, it took me a minute, but I got it.”

Winfrey: “I picture it: they’ve got the pictures on the wall. What do we have this week? What expression do we have? What can we create out of that?”

Goop’s podcast, which will be released every Thursday morning, will, according to the company, feature “Paltrow and Goop editors chatting with leading thinkers, culture changers, and industry disruptors—from doctors to creatives, C.E.O.’s to spiritual healers—about shifting old paradigms and starting new conversations.”