Keke Palmer surprised to learn Oprah Winfrey’s real first name

Keke Palmer was surprised to discover that Oprah Winfrey’s birth name is Orpah, not Oprah, during a new episode of Baby, This Is Keke Palmer.

Winfrey explained that she was named after the biblical figure Orpah from the Book of Ruth. However, as a child, people often mispronounced and misspelled her name, eventually calling her Oprah instead.

She said her birth certificate still reads “Orpah” and that she did not realise until she was around 20 that Oprah was not her official name.

The interview also featured a light-hearted discussion about Winfrey’s short-lived attempt at singing the theme song, “Run On,” for The Oprah Winfrey Show in the late 1990s. Winfrey described it as “one of the mistakes of my career,” despite Palmer defending the song.

Separately, Winfrey recently revealed that producers taped car keys inside giveaway boxes during her famous 2004 audience car giveaway to stop people identifying the winning box by shaking it. She said the audience had already seen 11 cars given away before the final surprise, when every audience member received a new car.