Where Oprah Winfrey Finds Peace in the California Forest

Photography CHRIS FRAWLEY Styling ANNABELLE HARRON Makeup DERRICK RUTLEDGE Hair NICOLE MANGRUM

My Space: Where Oprah Winfrey Finds her Peace

EE72 Editorial Director Sarah Harris steps inside the rooms that ground cultural figures, revealing the spaces that inspire, recharge, and feel most like home.

“I’ve lived in my home for 24 years now, but I remember, from the first moment I saw the trees, back when the house was for sale, I gasped. When I was in my 20s, working in television, the wealthiest person I ever met was one of the producers whose husband was a lawyer and when I went to visit her she had six trees in her yard and I always thought, ‘If I ever make enough money to have my own home, I’m going to have a yard with trees.’ And so I went from dreaming of six trees to having hundreds and thousands of them. I basically live in a forest of oaks and redwoods. The trees speak to me; we talk all the time. From the moment I’m through the gate, I say to the first trees, ‘Tell everyone I’m back,’ and they spread the word as I come up the driveway. This area is around 200ft from my home, and when I’m here, I feel very, very much connected to earth; it makes me feel part of something bigger than myself and that’s what a sacred space should do. I feel like it’s an exalted place to be in. This is not a phone space, I don’t think I’ve ever, ever actually opened my phone here, no, no, no. I hear the birds and the sound of the water from the pond; you can hear the koi fish jumping. Very early in the morning, when the mist is falling on the trees and coming out of the trunks, the stillness speaks to me. I feel restored, energized and stabilized. It’s a place to be.”

Oprah Winfrey
CALIFORNIA

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