CHICAGO — Oprah Winfrey spent nearly 30 years in Chicago but for most of them, she avoided the airport hassles here.
How?
In an appearance in New York Tuesday, Winfrey was talking about her experiences as a talk show host and the riches it brought her (she's estimated to be worth $2.9 billion.)
“Listen, I have my own plane … and I’ve actually had my own plane since 1990. I haven’t flown commercial since 1990,” Winfrey said, according to a report by Women's Wear Daily.
She said she made a decision to buy the plane after she was stuck in a Chicago airport on a three-hour delay.
According to the report, "A woman approached Winfrey and demanded a 'hug' and her cheerful TV schtick."
Said Winfrey: “I hugged the woman … then called my lawyer and I said: ‘It’s time’ [to buy the plane].”
A 2012 Hollywood Reporter story said that Winfrey at the time owned a Bombadier Global Express, which cost between $50 million and $60 million.
Winfrey sold her Harpo Studios in the West Loop in March of 2014 and moved her production company to California the next year. Her popularity has been credited for leading the redevelopment of the area around her former studio, at 1058 W. Washington Blvd., which was demolished this summer to make way for the relocation of McDonald's headquarters.