This post is for my mother Elaine, my wife Jac, my friend Anthula and okay a bit for me (Arlington). To say Oprah hasn’t been inspirational to us all in some form or fashion would not be telling the whole story – her show will definitely be missed, but I’m sure we have not heard the last of Madame Oprah Winfrey.

With tears in her eyes and her voice breaking, talk show host Oprah Winfrey yesterday told her legions of viewers: “I love this show, this show has been my life — and I love it enough to know when it’s time to say goodbye.”

However, for Winfrey, 55,  the end of her show will allow her to concentrate on the opening in 2011 of her very own channel, OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network.

OWN will be a 50-50 joint venture between the talk show host’s company, Harpo Productions, and Discovery Communications. “I will be involved in every single element of programming,” Winfrey has already promised her fans. OWN will ultimately replace the existing Discovery Health channel, which has failed to attract a loyal audience since it began ten years ago.

Her media empire has shown itself to be capable of seemingly endless expansion. Winfrey’s previous television channel, Oxygen, was sold to NBC Universal in 2007 for just under $1 billion. Meanwhile, Harpo Productions — the name is “Oprah” spelt backwards — publishes O magazine (circulation: 2.3 million) and produces other television shows (including Dr Phil), movies (including Beloved, starring Winfrey), and radio shows for the satellite broadcaster Sirius XM.

As of 2007, it had 410 employees and annual revenues of $345 million.

In a characteristically emotional on-air statement yesterday, Winfrey recalled the first time The Oprah Winfrey Show was broadcast nationally on September 8, 1986.

“I knew then what a miraculous opportunity I had been given, but I certainly never could have imagined the yellow brick road of blessings that have led me here,” she said. “These years with you, our viewers, have enriched my life beyond measure. You all have graciously invited me into your living rooms, into your kitchens, into your lives. Your trust in me has brought me the greatest joy I have ever known.”

Like other mass-market television programmes The Oprah Winfrey Show no longer attracts the audience it once did — it was 33 million at its peak — but over the years has remained a remarkable force in modern broadcasting, holding its No 1 position in the ratings for 23 consecutive seasons. Winfrey’s ability to break news with her interviews (such as Tom Cruise’s sofa-jumping performance in 2005) and devise headline-worthy publicity stunts (such as giving a free car to every member of her audience) have made it virtually impossible for rival shows to keep up.

Winfrey began her broadcasting career in Nashville, Tennessee, eventually moving to Chicago in 1984 to host a breakfast show, A.M. Chicago. It became The Oprah Winfrey Show within a year and by 1986 she had set up Harpo Productions and sold the show’s national syndication rights. The deal made her a millionaire at the age of 32 — a rare achievement for an African-American woman in those days.

Part of Winfrey’s appeal remains her extraordinary success against overwhelming odds. She has lived with her partner, Stedman Graham since 1986, but she has not married and never had any more children.

She has promised her viewers that The Oprah Winfrey Show will not lose steam before the end of its 25-year run. “We are going to knock your socks off,” she told her studio audience yesterday.

A few OPRAH moments to remember…

In 1986 Winfrey got the final TV interview with the pianist-showman Liberace, six weeks before his Aids-related death

Wearing slim-fitting, size 10 Calvin Klein jeans, she hauled a wagon loaded with fat on to the show’s set to represent her 67lb weight loss in 1988. She later called the show her “biggest, fattest” mistake

After remarking that a guest’s comments had “stopped her cold from eating another burger” during a show about mad cow disease, she was sued by a group of Texan cattlemen. The plaintiffs claimed she had cost the beef industry $11 million (£6.6m), but the jury ruled in her favour. After the trial, the talk show host was “still off hamburgers”

Minnie Driver discovered that she had been dumped when her boyfriend and Good Will Hunting co-star, Matt Damon, announced to Winfrey he was single

At the start of her 19th season, Winfrey gave away new cars, each worth $28,400 to every member of her 300-strong studio audience. She excitedly told them: “You get a car! You get a car! You get a car! Everybody gets a car!”

In 2005, Tom Cruise jumped up and down on her sofa, proclaiming his love for his fiancée, Katie Holmes. Winfrey later questioned Cruise’s sanity, saying: “You’re gone, you’re really gone”

Barack Obama’s presidential campaign got the Winfrey seal of approval, and a University of Maryland study found that her endorsement may have netted him about a million votes in the Democratic primary of 2008. She was seen weeping in the crowd during his election-night victory speech