Oprah Winfrey is closing the doors on one of the most controversial chapters of her philanthropic legacy.
The media mogul announced that she finally made a decision about the South African boarding school she founded in 2007.
The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls (OWLAG) has faced years of scrutiny over scandal, political ties, and one lingering question.
For nearly two decades, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls has given young women more than an education.
It has opened doors, expanded opportunities, and changed the course of lives that might have unfolded very differently. It will now close after decades of rumors and allegations about what was going on there.
The academy will graduate two more classes before the Gauteng Department of Education takes over the 22-acre campus as a public school, according to Oprah Daily.
Students still enrolled in 2027 will transfer to top-tier schools, with Winfrey covering tuition through graduation.
In a statement released Wednesday, July 29, Winfrey, 72, revealed that she is expanding a national scholarship program that will nearly double its reach.
Althought her act comes off like a good deed to some, others on social media users are not buying it.
Many chose to resurrect old suspicions and the one question she has never answered.
The academy will graduate two more classes of girls and the remaining students “will go to other top-tier schools with their tuition paid for in total by Ms. Winfrey through their graduation,” the rep says.
— Nonkululeko 🇿🇦🪁 (@Nkulerrrh) July 29, 2026
Oprah Winfrey closing the Academy and creating a sponsorship program
“Sooooo did they ever find those missing girls a few years back yet or they still missing?” one person asked.
Another said, “Explain to me like I’m 5 years old.. what happened to all those girls at @Oprah school.. how little was said about it but when it opened it was all over the news.”
Explain to me like I’m 5 years old.. what happened to all those girls at @Oprah school.. how little was said about it but when it opened it was all over the news .. pic.twitter.com/HOMVHn9nrS
— nicoleL what the hell (@NicoleL2084808) July 28, 2026
Still many speculated that Winfrey was hiding something or getting ahead of any controversy that may come. “Probably covering up some s—t … I feel she’s got some skeletons in her closet,” suspected one person.
“Don’t worry, the truth will come out eventually cause all them girls know they’re free to talk cause she closing it down now so they gonna open their mouth!” another person tweeted.
Not everyone piled on. Some framed the closure as a bittersweet full-circle moment.
“Oprah poured everything into that school for almost 20 years and now its shutting down feels like the final chapter on a dream that just couldn’t outrun everything else going wrong there,” one person wrote. adding, “The girls who made it through still carry what she gave them though.”
The “missing girls” chatter traces back to a real scandal, though the facts don’t match the rumor mill. Weeks after the academy opened in 2007, authorities accused a dorm matron of abusing students. The academy fired her, but a court acquitted her of all 14 charges in 2010.
Since then, claims about mass graves have repeatedly resurfaced online, despite being dismissed as baseless conspiracy theories.
Still, the shadow of that early scandal has followed Winfrey into unrelated moments in the spotlight.
At the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Winfrey took the stage to campaign for Kamala Harris. She even took a swipe at JD Vance’s “childless cat ladies” remark. “If the place happens to belong to a childless cat lady, well, we try to get that cat out, too,” she joked.
The comment was a reference to Vance’s 2021 claim that Harris and other Democratic politicians for not having biological children.
The line drew cheers inside the United Center.
Republican pollster Frank Luntz was so impressed he tweeted, “I got it wrong. I thought Michelle Obama’s speech would resonate most from this convention. Instead, it will be [Oprah]. She has really touched the values nerve.”
Online, though, critics used the moment to needle her about the academy’s history rather than her politics.
Despite the noise, the academy’s real numbers tell a different story.
Since 2007, more than 1,000 girls have graduated from OWLAG, going on to become doctors, lawyers, engineers and executives. Winfrey celebrated Dr. Bongeka Zuma in June 2024 after she earned her medical degree from Stanford.
“One of the great joys of my life was to see her walk across that stage!” Winfrey wrote on Instagram two years ago. “She never gave up, and with a support team of good friends, fellow OWLAG sisters, and professors, we all celebrated her achievement with great pride. Congratulations, Dr. Zuma. Well done! Well done!”
“This school is my greatest legacy,” Winfrey has said. “These girls are my deepest, greatest joy.”
While the academy will graduate its final two classes before handing over its keys in 2027, for Winfrey, the closure isn’t the end of her mission.
It’s simply a new form for a promise she made nearly two decades ago.
