Oprah Winfrey has gotten herself into a little family feud after purchasing her father’s barbershop so that it wouldn’t have to shut down.
Winfrey bought the shop, located in Nashville, Tennessee, which her dad Vernon has owned and operated for 50 years in an auction after he faced losing the building to foreclosure.
Vernon Winfrey’s wife Barbara, who filed divorce papers earlier this week is now claiming that she would have been able to pay off the shop’s debts on her own, had she not been locked out of the family business by her step-daughter, Oprah.
Barbara told Fox News, “I know what is going on. I’m tired of it, and I’ve had enough. There is no reason for it to go into foreclosure like this. The property is upside down, which is what a lot of properties are. It cost us $481,000 to build this building, but it’s only worth $350,000.”
“People are giving him wrong advice, and it’s leaving me in a situation where all I can do is fight for me. He believes what he’s told. His daughter doesn’t care about the community. His daughter doesn’t care about the barbershop. But I do.”
Vernon, on the other hand has defended his decision to allow O to buy his property, insisting, “My wife and I, we have not been getting along well, and I did not want to endow myself to another drawn-out, struggling debt.”
A rep for Oprah said in a statement regarding the purchase, “Oprah purchased the property that was in foreclosure. Vernon Winfrey has been a fixture in the community for decades and will continue to manage the business on a day-to-day basis.”
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