US talk show host Oprah Winfrey has revealed on air that she has discovered a half-sister she never knew about.
The US talk show host first found about her half-sister in November
The American presenter announced to the audience of The Oprah Winfrey Show that a woman named Patricia from Wisconsin had discovered the two were half-sisters.
The TV host said the discovery "literally shook me to my core".
Patricia - whose last name has not been revealed - had spent years searching for the identity of the mother who gave her up for adoption in 1963.
She says she learned in 2007 that the billionaire media tycoon Winfrey was her half-sister.
Winfrey, who will celebrate her 57th birthday on Saturday, says she learned about Patricia in November.
The two met on Thanksgiving Day, November 25th.
In emotional scenes on Monday's edition of her show, Winfrey brought Patricia out on to the stage and the two held hands as they sat side-by-side.
Winfrey said: "It is not something I ever thought would happen to me."
Oprah brought Patricia out on stage during her chat show
Winfrey says she was nine years old and living with her father when
her mother Vernita Lee had the daughter and gave her up for adoption.She says she never even knew her mother was pregnant.
Her half-sister said she had initially kept her discovery secret because she was worried about creating a media frenzy.
She said: "I did not want to hurt her."
Winfrey paid tribute to Patricia’s refusal to approach the media with the story even as she was reaching out to the star herself.
Winfrey was born into poverty to a single mother in rural Mississippi but raised in an inner-city neighbourhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
That is where her newly-discovered half-sister lives.
Her landmark TV show will end after a 25-year run this year and Winfrey has launched her own channel, the Oprah Winfrey Network.