Oprah: Quiet in Class

By Stephen M. Silverman

Friday June 12, 1998 12:00 AM EDT

Oprah Winfrey is a firm believer in life-long confidentiality agreements. The talk show queen, who turns 47 at the end of this month, tells Newsweek that she sees no problem in muzzling the employees on her show and the students she teaches at Illinois's Northwestern University from spilling the beans on her in tell-all books or articles. She said her longtime companion, Stedman Graham, convinced her that "you cannot create an atmosphere where your employees know that they can be bought, that they can sell you out." Elsewhere in the interview, Winfrey says she decided to start her own magazine, O, after a suggestion from an audience member and a pitch from Good Housekeeping magazine, the combination of which she interpreted as a sign from God. She also admitted to a fetish for pajamas: "I have flannel and cashmere and silk, white and flowered. I love pajamas."