The incredible life of Oprah Winfrey

OPRAH spent Easter on a superyacht with the Obamas, Tom Hanks and Bruce Springsteen. She tells news.com.au what they got up to.

Oprah Winfrey and the Obamas are firm friends.

SHE’S best friends with the Obamas, has more Twitter followers than Donald Trump and inspires millions of people around the world. Could there be a President Oprah Winfrey in the future?

“No there could not,” she booms, in her characteristic Oprah voice.

“I didn’t feel qualified [before Trump] and I still don’t feel that I am qualified to take on the responsibilities of what that means. It means running the world, really. I don’t feel that I could do it, nor the amount of energy it would take to do it,” she tells news.com.au.

Presumably Oprah discussed the subject with her close friends, Michelle and Barack Obama when they sailed the French Polynesian islands together during their recent Easter holiday.

“Well, there were lots and lots and lots of conversations but I can’t tell you what they were about. I have to keep to our code: ‘What happens on the boat, stays on the boat’.”

Tom Hanks and Bruce Springsteen, both of whom were awarded the Medal of Freedom last year by President Obama, were also on-board. “Tom Hanks is a hoot,” she laughs. “There was lots of jetskiing, swimming, paddle-boarding eating, laughter, great fun,” she smiles.

Former US President Obama take a holiday snap of his wife Michelle, as she poses on the top deck of the 138 metre Rising Sun yacht where the couple, Oprah, Tom Hanks and Bruce Springsteen stayed over Easter. Picture: Mike Leyral / AFP Photo

One can only imagine what it must be like to be in her shoes. So, what is it like to be Oprah Winfrey?

“Fantastic!” she laughs. “I don’t know anything that is not fun. Well actually, it’s a very simple life except lived on a very large scale.

“Hanging out on big boats with friends is not something I do very often, but I enjoy that too. But really, having five or six people around a table, having a wonderful English muffin and some tea is my idea of a good time.”

Oprah looked incredible at the recent premiere of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Picture: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Despite Oprah’s characteristic enthusiasm for life, the unpredictable times we live in have been affecting her. “I started avoiding watching the news. It was just too much for me,” she tells news.com.au.

“I used to watch on my treadmill, and it was making me ill actually to take it in; watching the pundits constantly talking and no one knowing what the hell they’re talking about.”

I ask her to comment on the current political situation. “No I will not comment. Because by the time I comment, it would have changed tomorrow. So no.”

She’s in New York to promote her TV movie, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a true story about a woman who died of cancer and whose cells led to unprecedented medical breakthroughs. The story is told from the point of view of her daughter, played by Oprah.

She admits, “I didn’t know diddly about Henrietta Lacks. And I am a student of African-American history and I grew up reciting Sojourn Truth and Margaret Walker’s poems, Maya Angelou’s poems, so I could not believe that I, as an African-American student of the culture, had never heard of this woman. How could that be?”

Oprah Winfrey and Rose Byrne in a scene from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Picture: Quantrell Colbert/HBO via AP

Most of her scenes are with Rose Byrne, who plays journalist Rebecca Skloot, with whom she shares some pretty heated scenes. “I love working with Rose,” she recalls. “She gave 120 per cent every day. She was full on.”

Largely considered one of the most powerful people in the world, Oprah says, “There is only one kind of power that really matters and that is authentic power.” She pauses. “But I am the same person that I would have been had I been that 4th grade teacher that I was going to be. I would have been a dynamic 4th grade teacher, I would have won the teacher of the year award for sure,” she laughs.

“When I ended the Oprah show, one of the things I said was, ‘I knew every day that this was exactly where I was supposed to be.’ There was nobody who could do that in the same way that I did. There were lots of shows, but nobody could do it exactly the way that I could do it, because that is what I was supposed to be doing, every single day. And the same thing is true no matter where you are in your life.”

For someone with as much high intensity as Winfrey, slipping into wind-down mode might pose some challenges. “No. I get there instantly. I am good, when the plane lands, hello!!” she laughs. “‘Vacation!’ Yes. I am not one of those people who say, ‘Oh, it’s going to take you three days.’ No, oh no, no,” she says, shaking her head.

“As soon as I hit the ground I am there.”