U.S. talk show queen Oprah Winfrey bade a tearful farewell to her groundbreaking television program Wednesday, ending 25 years of star confessions and exhortations that her legions of loyal followers should “live their best lives.”

    NO guests, no makeovers, no giveaways.

    Oprah Winfrey kicked off her last-ever original episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” by telling a studio audience that the broadcast would be a simple, celebrity-free affair focusing on what her audience has meant to her.

    “You and this show have been the great love of my life,” a tearful Winfrey told viewers in “The Oprah Winfrey Finale,” taped before a studio audience of 400 Tuesday afternoon and broadcast Wednesday morning.

    “This last show is really about me saying thank you,” she said. “It is my love letter to you.”

    Wearing a simple pink dress, Winfrey took the stage to a standing ovation and showed clips from some of her earliest broadcasts while expressing gratitude and sharing life lessons with viewers.

    “Thank you, America. There are no words to match this moment.”

    Winfrey, 57, was a pioneer in the art of confessional television and in promoting discussion of formerly taboo subjects including incest, rape, sexual abuse and depression.

    “The Oprah Winfrey Show” also became the go-to place for celebrities and politicians to promote new ventures and to apologize publicly for their indiscretions.

    Winfrey announced in November 2009 that she would end her popular talk show after 25 years. She is expected to focus in the next few years on her cable channel OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network), which launched in January 2011.

    Winfrey, who has publicly struggled with her own weight issues, has also become a spiritual icon and self-help guru urging viewers to find their true selves, follow their intuition and find inner peace and happiness.

    Born into a life of poverty and abuse in Mississippi in 1954, Winfrey began her broadcasting career while she was still in high school and landed a job as a news anchor in Nashville at age 19.

    Her emotional ad-libs won her a Chicago morning talk show in 1984, which beat rival Phil Donahue for the top spot locally within a month and was syndicated nationally in 1986. She also acted in the 1985 hit film “The Color Purple.”

    “The Oprah Winfrey Show” remained the top-rated talk show of all time and was estimated to reach 40 million U.S. viewers a week.

    The show served as the foundation for an empire that spans books, radio, magazines and the Internet and has launched the careers of a host of regular guests including counselor Dr. Phil and chef Rachael Ray.

    Winfrey began her own production company in 1988 and named it Harpo — her name backwards — and Forbes magazine declared her the first female African-American billionaire in 2003.

    Winfrey is now estimated to be worth US$2.7 billion and is regularly ranked among the world’s most powerful women, celebrities and media personalities.

    “I am truly amazed that I who started out in rural Mississippi in 1954 when the vision for a black girl was limited to being either a maid or a teacher in a segregated school could end up here,” she said Wednesday as she drew the curtain on her final show.

    The Oprah Book Club, started 15 years ago, championed 65 titles and has almost 2 million members. In one memorable 2004 show, Winfrey gave all 276 audience members a new car.

    Known as an almost uniquely influential tastemaker, Winfrey’s recommendation of a book or product has an instantaneous and enormous effect. She popularized works including Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road.”

    Her stamp of approval was considered so important that she managed to convince the famously reclusive author to appear on her show for his first-ever television interview.

    In 2008, she broke with a precedent of staying out of politics and endorsed fellow Chicagoan Barack Obama’s presidential bid.

    Her support was estimated by University of Maryland researchers to have brought in a million additional votes and helped Obama win both the Democratic nomination and the presidency.

    Her strength remained the emotional connection she made with her guests and viewers. Many celebrities chose Winfrey’s comfortable couch as a confessional.

    Tom Cruise famously jumped up on the sofa to proclaim his love for Katie Holmes. Winfrey also took her show to Neverland Ranch for a 1993 interview with Michael Jackson which drew an audience of 100 million people.

    Winfrey’s use of public confession as therapy was not reserved for guests: she regularly spoke of her battles with her fluctuating weight and of the sexual abuse she suffered as a child.

    She fought to help prevent child abuse by establishing a national database of convicted child abusers, which became known as the “Oprah Bill” when then U.S. President Bill Clinton signed it into law in 1993.

    Winfrey is also a noted philanthropist, launching a public charity in 1998 to encourage her viewers to make a difference in the lives of others and a private foundation devoted to expanding access to education worldwide.

    Winfrey has never married and has kept her more than 20-year relationship with businessman Stedman Graham largely out of public view.

    But for her final show Wednesday he was in the audience, as she bade a tearful farewell to her legions of fans.

    (SD-Agencies)