Who knew that the winds in the Windy City were so strong they could blow Oprah out of town?
The beloved daytime talk-show host — who is ending “The Oprah Winfrey Show” after 25 years — has become too fragile for the brutal winters in Chicago and plans to move full time to her $52 million estate in sunny California, it was reported yesterday.
“Why would anybody stay in Chicago? It’s freezing here,” she told someone close to her, according to Hollywood blogger Nikki Finke. “And I have a mansion in Montecito that I haven’t been able to enjoy.”
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Winfrey, 55, is looking to unload all her Chicago real estate “as soon as possible,” Finke reported, and move permanently to the West Coast to build her own cable channel.
She had held back moving full time to California earlier to avoid having to pay taxes there, Finke reported.
Winfrey’s fleeing the Midwest will leave a giant hole in the hearts of Chicagoans reeling from a string of disappointments.
“Coming off the loss of the Olympics, and the news that conventions are moving elsewhere, and what with the Bears falling apart and the long winter ahead — what kind of effect will this have on Chicago’s morale?” bemoaned the Chicago Sun-Times’ television critic Paige Wiser.
Holding back tears, Winfrey formally announced to her TV studio audience yesterday that she planned to shutter production on her show in 2011, saying ending it after 25 years “feels right in my bones” and “in my spirit.”
“I certainly never could have imagined the yellow brick road of blessings that have led me to this moment,” she said. “I love this show. This show has been my life and I love it enough to know when it’s time to say goodbye.”
While Winfrey did not discuss her TV plans for her future, she is widely expected to create a new talk show for OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, her much-delayed joint venture with Discovery Communications that is set to start in 2011.
The channel will replace Discovery Health Channel and debut in 74 million homes.
In the meantime, Winfrey promised her audience that for the next 18 months, she and her staff would continue delivering quality shows until she pulls the plug on the hit program.
“My team and I will be brainstorming new ways that we can entertain you and inform you and uplift you when we return here in January,” she told the audience. “And then, season 25 — we are going to knock your socks off.”