{"id":2312,"date":"2026-06-23T11:05:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T11:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=2312"},"modified":"2026-06-23T11:05:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T11:05:46","slug":"oprah-winfrey-admits-i-didnt-want-to-be-a-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=2312","title":{"rendered":"Oprah Winfrey Admits: \u201cI Didn\u2019t Want to Be a Brand\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>\nOprah Winfrey took the Croisette at Cannes Lions on Tuesday, drawing a crowd that filled the event venue\u2019s stage-level seating to the brim about 30 minutes ahead of the 10 a.m. start time of her keynote appearance.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=2310\">Karlovy Vary Adds Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick and Harvey Keitel, Will Kick Off With World Cup Doc<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tSoon, folks started making their way to the upper level to ensure they could catch the TV host, producer, actress, author, philanthropist and outright media icon. <\/p>\n<p>\n\tAnd when Winfrey took to the stage, phone cameras lit up the room as the crowd erupted into a roar.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tWinfrey came to town to receive the 2026\u00a0Cannes\u00a0LionHeart an honor celebrating \u201cindividuals who are driving positive change.\u201d As such, it is designed to recognize \u201cthose who use creativity, influence and leadership as a force for good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tWinfrey discussed her work and values during the annual Cannes LionHeart Seminar on Tuesday morning with Phil Thomas, the chairman of the Festival of Creativity, at the Lumi\u00e8re Theatre at the Palais des Festivals. Cannes Lions CEO\u00a0Simon Cook\u00a0had told <em>The Hollywood Reporter<\/em> that Oprah embodies the Lions\u2019 spirit. In his introduction, Thomas highlighted Winfrey\u2019s decades of influential work and shared how long it took him to get her to Cannes Lions, mentioning that he found his first-ever email invitation to her team \u2013 from 2012.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201dI\u2019m grateful for your persistence,\u201d Winfrey told him after welcoming the crowd. Was she nervous? \u201cNot a bit!\u201d she shared.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tAsked about the Oprah brand, she shared that originally, \u201cI resisted 100 percent ever being called a brand. I didn\u2019t want to be a brand. \u2026 My real intention was being authentic\u201d and being \u201ctrue to myself.\u201d But now she accepts that representing a brand is part of her work and fits her mission as long as the brand is a full expression of who she is and wants to be.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cAuthentic empowerment \u2026 nobody can take away from you,\u201d no matter what subscription or other trends may be, she told creators in the audience. \u201cNever lose sight of the real reason you have come to Planet Earth,\u201d which puts you in service of something that is bigger than you. Her advice: don\u2019t try to be the best TV host or creator. Focus on being the best human being you can and want to be. \u201cYour legacy is every life you touch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tWinfrey also shared that she learned to \u201cnot just let television use me,\u201d but focus on the question of \u201chow do I transform that [platform] into a force for good.\u201d In repeatedly emphasizing the importance of being authentic, she also shared that saying \u201cyes\u201d when you mean \u201cno\u201d costs you the energy of resentment.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tWinfrey emphasized that discussing their intentions with interview guests is key for her to ensure authenticity and alignment rather than a voyeuristic focus. She recalled Whitney Houston\u2019s final performance on her TV show in that context.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=2308\">Stellan Skarsgard to Star in Trailer for Double Anniversary Edition of Karlovy Vary Film Fest<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cI had such trust from <em>The Oprah Winfrey Show<\/em> audience,\u201d she shared. \u201cWhitney did what I think was her last show with us, and she had gone back on drugs. The first interview I did with her \u2026 she was clean, but the day she came to my show to perform in front of the audience, she was not, and she fell off of the stage,\u201d Winfrey recalled. \u201cI knew that if that story got out that she\u2019d fallen off the stage, she would be destroyed by that, and so even though the audience was there and the audience had cameras, I begged them not to put those pictures out because it would ruin her life, and they did not.\u201d Winfrey added that in today\u2019s age of mobile phones and social media, things would surely be different.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tNow, people take selfies with her, but in the old days, Winfrey recalled signing autographs, which was tiring. \u201cWhat do I want?\u201d she learned to ask herself, the star told the Cannes Lions crowd. Her answer was she would rather talk to people in the audience about their lives and what brought them to her show, which she did. Winfrey shared that this allowed her to learn so much and also served as research for her team.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tWinfrey also shared other lessons from her career. \u201dWas that okay?\u201d is the most common question she gets from interview partners, including from the biggest names, she shared. That includes the likes of Beyonc\u00e9, who taught her how to twerk, as Winfrey recalled to laughter, and Barack Obama, among others. Winfrey\u2019s takeaway: everybody wants to he heard, seen and understood.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tEarlier this year, Winfrey struck a deal to move <em>The Oprah Podcast<\/em>, her book club and more\u00a0to Amazon\u2019s Wondery.\u00a0Under the agreement,<em>\u00a0The Oprah Podcast\u00a0<\/em>will expand to two episodes per week starting this summer, with Wondery gaining exclusive distribution and advertising rights to the show\u2019s audio and video. The deal also covers rights to\u00a0<em>The\u00a0Oprah Winfrey\u00a0Show\u00a0<\/em>library, Oprah\u2019s Book Club and Oprah\u2019s Favorite Things, with the opportunity to integrate the two further across Amazon.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tStarting in July, Wondery will distribute\u00a0<em>The Oprah Podcast<\/em>\u00a0across Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Music, Fire TV Channels, and Audible. The show will also continue to be available on YouTube and wherever podcasts are available.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tWinfrey is also among the familiar voices who will guide visitors on the audio tours of the Obama Presidential Center. She and\u00a0Tom Hanks\u00a0will narrate portions of the audio tour for the presidential library.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tWinfrey left to a rousing standing ovation and cheers. A DJ inside the Lumi\u00e8re Theatre had warmed up the crowd for her \u2013 not that attendees needed any more motivation. Cheers of \u201cOprah!\u201d echoed through the air even as one entered the venue. Ushers asking people to move on to a different door because one side of the hall was already full heard such comments as \u201cPlease tell me I can still get in!\u201d and \u201cI\u2019ll be happy to stand!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tWhile Oprah was the Tuesday morning magnet for attendees, elsewhere on the Croisette, things were more quiet than on the first Cannes Lions morning on Monday. After all, there was a lot of business talk and networking going on until late. \u201cThere were a lot of parties last night,\u201d one person working around the Palais told <em>THR<\/em>. <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=2306\">Kevin Bacon to Star in Jeremy Slater Horror Thriller \u2018Summoner\u2019 (Exclusive)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oprah Winfrey, at Cannes Lions 2026, discussed being a brand, TV, learning to twerk from Beyonce and begging her audience to protect Whitney Houston.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1655,1656,2,1891],"class_list":["post-2312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-cannes-lions","tag-cannes-lions-2026","tag-international","tag-oprah-winfrey"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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