*“Extra’s” Tanika Ray was with Oprah Winfrey at the premiere of OWN’s new romantic drama, “Love Is ___,” the new show from award-winning producers Mara Brock Akil and Salim Akil.
The series follows a couple from opposite worlds as they chase their dreams, and learn to follow their hearts. Oprah revealed how she hopes people will learn from the show, saying, “I hope the world gains that there are multiple ways of loving, ultimately intimacy, and trust,” adding, “Love is working for me!”
Winfrey also weighed in on the recent suicides of Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade.
“Every death, not just Anthony Bourdain, not just Kate Spade, not just people that who are famous and names that we know… every death is here to teach us how to live better. Every death is here to remind us of our own life and the value of it. So what will come of these deaths in sequence like this, the suicides, is a more open desire to talk about it. There are lots and lots of people who have not been forthcoming because they are ashamed still of talking about mental illness in their family and mental illness in people around them, but it is serious and it is real.”
Oprah emphasized about mental illness, “I actually think social media and society in general have made it worse for people, because everybody is trying to maintain a standard that cannot be held… so I think it’s an open door for conversation for all of us to get better.”
She also dished on attending the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. “It felt like another level of everything. It felt like more than a wedding. It felt like a shift in culture. I left more hopeful.”
“Love Is ___” premieres June 19 on OWN.