The One Incident That Made Oprah Swear Off Commercial Flights and Buy Her Own Plane
You’ll never spot Oprah Winfrey in a commercial airport. It’s not that the Queen of daytime doesn’t travel — she loves a good getaway — but rather that she can’t stand rude fans.
In a recent interview with British Vogue, Winfrey explained to the magazine's Editor-in-Chief Edward Enninful that the greatest luxury purchase she’s ever invested in is a private plane. This way, she explained, she can bypass rude travelers at the airport.
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“There are days when I am more open and warm than others,” Winfrey said. “One of the things that actually caused me in 1991 to get my own plane, I was in the airport and I was just minding my own business and a woman came up and she said, ‘You're not acting like you do on TV.’”
Winfrey said the woman went on to say she frequently saw the television host hugging people on her television show, and that she should be doing the same thing in her daily life, too.
“If I'm in an airport, I'm not necessarily hugging people, OK? But I am always just myself,” Winfrey said. By that time in the '90s, Winfrey said she had “figured out how to be myself completely on television and all these years, I have made a fortune being myself.”
Though you won’t catch a glimpse of Winfrey on your commercial flight, you could (maybe, possibly) sit near her on your next cruise. In June, Holland America announced its partnership with O, The Oprah Magazine for a three-day women-only cruise event setting sail on Jan. 30, 2019. While Winfrey is slated to be on its inaugural cruise she has yet to announce if she will make an appearance on subsequent cruises. If you do happen to find yourself on a cruise with Oprah, don’t ask for a hug.
