Iyanla Vanzant sits down with Oprah for an intimate conversation about her humble beginnings as Rhonda Harris (her birth name), an abused teen mom from Brooklyn. Asked to describe her “former self,” Vanzant says, “She is a survivor. She is a very resourceful, broke, wounded, sorrowful individual.”
Vanzant changed her name in her late-20s to symbolize letting go of Rhonda Harris. [Rhonda] is the reason I am sitting her today,” she adds. “Had it not been for her I would not have survived the abuse, the abandonment, the rejection.
The revealing two-part Oprah & Iyanla Vanzant: Soul-to-Soul interview will air on two consecutive Sundays, September 9 and September 16 at 11 a.m. on OWN.