Oprah Winfrey promised to reveal a big "family secret" on her show on Monday, and she didn't disappoint.
The queen of daytime TV made the stunning announcement that she has reunited with a half-sister whose existence she only learned of recently.
The sister, 47, lives in Milwaukee, Wis., is named Patricia and has two children of her own, Winfrey announced during a show that aired Monday morning.
According to Winfrey, 57, her mother Vernita Lee gave the child up for adoption. Winfrey was nine years old at the time and living with her father, and didn't even know her mother was pregnant.
Patricia, who also appeared on the show on Monday, said she had years ago given up hope of finding her birth mother. It was only at the insistence of her grown children that she recently restarted the search.
It got off to a bad start, with the state adoption agency telling her that her birth mother had been contacted, and wasn't interested in meeting her. But coincidentally, a local news report that same day focused on Winfrey's mother, and her account of having two other children who had died.
Something clicked. Patricia had seen her own adoption papers and knew those details matched up with her own family tree. She put together other pieces of information and eventually met with Winfrey and their mother.
Winfrey said DNA tests showed they were half-sisters. She also said Patricia had known they were related since 2007, but never attempted to profit from the knowledge or sell the story, despite trying unsuccessfully to get in touch with Winfrey.
Speaking on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on Monday, Patricia said the thought never entered her mind.
"Family business should be handled by family," Patricia said. "It couldn't be handled by anyone else. That's not fair. It wouldn't be fair to you."
Ahead of the announcement Winfrey said she was stunned by the news, which she described as a "miracle."
"I was given some news that literally shook me to my core. This time, I'm the one being reunited," Winfrey said in advertisements for the Jan. 24 show.
"I was keeping a family secret for months, and on Monday you're going to hear it straight from me."
Ahead of the show, speculation abounded about the nature of the announcement.
Some guessed the news would pertain to a revelation about Winfrey's parents, while some, such as celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, correctly anticipated an announcement about a previously unknown sibling.
Hilton cited unauthorized Winfrey biographer Kitty Kelley as the originator of the half-sister theory that proved to be correct.
In her 2010 biography, Kelley also alleged that Vernon Winfrey isn't Oprah's biological father. Winfrey has not publicly commented on the allegations included in the book.
Winfrey had two other siblings, a brother named Jeffrey and a half-sister, also named Patricia, both of whom have died.
In another recent on-the-air revelation, Winfrey announced that as a teenager she had given birth to a son who died shortly after being born.
The long-running and immensely popular talk-show host announced recently this is her last season with the Chicago-based show.
Winfrey launched The Oprah Winfrey Network, or OWN, in January.
