Oprah Winfrey Buys $10K Wedding Dress For Leadership Academy Graduate

It pays to be one of Oprah Winfrey’s “daughters.” The media mogul, who opened her leadership academy in South Africa in 2007, took three graduates from the school on a whirlwind shopping trip to Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills over the weekend. And something like a fabled fairy godmother, Oprah waved her magic credit card to drop $10,000 on a wedding dress for one of her former students, according to The Daily Mail.

The Saks store was shut down to the public as Oprah and her friends shopped the bridal showroom. The OWN boss also treated the group to a meal at Wolfgang Pucks’ Spago restaurant.

Oprah Winfrey later posted a photo from the shopping trip to her Instagram page, which you can see below. In the caption, Winfrey noted that she has known these girls since they were about 12 years old — and that she has stayed close with them throughout their high school, college, and grad school years.

“Now our first wedding. Looking for the perfect dress,” Winfrey wrote as she helped the bride-to-be hold up a gorgeous beaded gown from Berta.

The photo has received more than 750,000 likes — and a slew of comments from fans and famous friends.

“Omg love these big life moments xo so awesome,” Winfrey’s pal, Maria Shriver, wrote. “That’s the best thing ever,” actress Holly Robinson Peete added.

O Magazine assistant editor Joséph Zambrano had a message for Oprah, who has been dating longtime love Stedman Graham for decades but has never married him. “Plot twist: You catch the bouquet at the wedding,” Zambrano wrote.

Page Six notes that, over the years, Oprah Winfrey has been known to treat alumni of her Leadership Academy for Girls to expensive outings. In 2015, Oprah took 20 former students to a Broadway performance of The Color Purple — and to dinner at the iconic Rainbow Room restaurant in New York City. Oprah also regularly hosts Leadership Academy students at her own home, the celebrity site reports.

Oprah Winfrey founded the Leadership Academy for Girls in 2007, seeing it as a way to better the lives of underprivileged girls living in nine provinces across South Africa. The boarding school houses teen girls in grades 8 through 12, and the former Oprah Winfrey Show host is a loving presence to the students — both on and off campus. According to The Huffington Post, the girls at the school affectionately call Winfrey “Mom Oprah” or “Mama O,” and the media mogul refers to the students as her “daughters.”