You might think that Oprah Winfrey would mark the milestone occasion of turning 70 with a huge party surrounded by hyper-successful friends, but according to her best friend Gayle King, that is not necessarily the case.
The CBS TV host took to Instagram to pay tribute to Oprah on her birthday, giving fans an unexpected insight into how she spent the momentous day. The candid video saw Oprah reading to Gayle's grandson Luca.
The video saw Oprah, adorably nicknamed Aunty O, reading Luca a book at Christmas time. The duo made sure to do all the sound effects involved in telling the story, as Oprah made the reading experience as interactive as possible.
"Aunty O really liked reading you the book", she said earnestly to the little one. "Now Aunty O's going to take some quiet time!"
Her best friend could be heard laughing in the background as Oprah got ready for her quiet time, exclaiming, "that was only one book!"
Oprah responded: "Yeah! It was a whole book!" justifying the end to her quality time with the baby.
Gayle announced alongside the adorable video: "Happy to say at 70 @oprah is still a very good reader!"
"While Favorite grandson Luca is too young to understand how special this moment was during Christmas vacation, it’s not lost on me", she continued.
She carried on that when Oprah was asked how she wanted to spend her birthday, her request was to keep it simple: "She said, 'No gifts, no parties, no surprises!' Her preference was to sit by the fire with a good book and savor the fragrance of her life! Happy birthday Oprah!!"
Oprah has long been a voracious reader. Not only was she close with legendary author Maya Angelou, but she has had a few different book clubs since 1996. The original Oprah's Book Club lasted around 15 years, selecting approximately 70 books over the period. When books were selected to be read by the book clubs, sales could increase by as many as several million copies.
However, since the end to the original club, Oprah has had a couple more iterations of it, with Oprah's Book Club 2.0 and an Apple + TV show which ran from 2019 to 2021.
Oprah and Gayle have been friends since they were both in their 20s, with the former famously describing her best friend as: "the mother I never had; she is the sister everybody would want; she is the friend everybody deserves; I don't know a better person".