OPRAH Winfrey embellished her poor upbringing and made up stories about sexual abuse to boost her ratings, her relatives claim in a new book by controversial biographer Kitty Kelley that was released worldwide yesterday.

Although Winfrey has said she never had any new dresses or dolls growing up - and had to adopt two cockroaches as pets growing up in rural Mississippi - her cousin Katherine Carr Esters contends she was actually relatively "spoiled" as a little girl, the New York Post reports.

"Where Oprah got that nonsense about growing up in filth and roaches I have no idea," Ms Esters said. "I've confronted her and asked, 'Why do you tell such lies?'. Oprah told me 'That's what people want to hear. The truth is boring'."

The unauthorised biography Oprah also describes how rumours once swirled about a relationship between Winfrey and American ABC TV host Diane Sawyer. ABC employees described "giggly late-night phone calls," and a series of lavish gifts from Winfrey, including gigantic sprays of orchids and a one-carat diamond toe ring.

Despite such rumours, Kelley - known as the "poison pen" biographer for her portrayals of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Sinatra among others - concludes that Winfrey is "asexual".

However, she quotes sources describing how in 1989 Winfrey paid an ex-boyfriend $50,000 to keep quiet about her gay brother and "some lesbian affairs".

As for her relationship with long-time partner Stedman Graham, according to the book the two do not share a bedroom.

Vernon Winfrey, the man who raised Oprah, is also frustrated with the way she has played fast and loose with the truth.

"She may be admired by the world but I know the truth," he says. "So does God and so does Oprah. Two of us remain ashamed."

Mr Winfrey reserves his harshest words for Oprah's best friend Gayle King, who put the kibosh on a biography he was working on.

Calling her a "dirt hog" and "street heifer", he blamed her for a rift in their relationship.

"She's become too close to that woman Gayle," he said.

A friend of Ms Esters added the manipulation of Oprah's past was a key to her success.

"Every move is calculated to further her brand and lift her image, which is why she does good works," Jewette Battles said.

As a teen, Winfrey was a wild-child, promiscuous to the point of prostitution, her relatives said.

The future star would steal from her mother's purse, pawn her jewellery and even turn tricks. She was eventually sent to live in Nashville with Vernon Winfrey, who was her mother's former lover and who is listed on her birth certificate as her father.

He has been described as the domineering disciplinarian who set her straight.

Later, determined to become rich and famous, Winfrey was ready to change her story to her advantage, making sure she cultivated her image as an everyday woman, the book alleges.

Kelley quotes sources describing how in 1989 Winfrey was insistent on paying ex-boyfriend Tim Watts $50,000 to keep quiet about her lesbian affairs and the fact that her brother, who died of AIDS, was gay.

"He said she did not want him to talk about her brother being gay," said Judy Lee Colteryahn, who also dated Mr Watts. "It's no big deal to have a brother who is homosexual, but apparently it was to Oprah. Tim also said he knew about some lesbian affairs."

As for Winfrey's very public relationship with Mr Graham, the pair do not even share a bedroom, according to the book.

Landscape architect James Van Sweden, who spent years working for the couple, said he planned to design a space for a wedding in front of their new estate but knew immediately after watching them together that there would never be a wedding.

"Oprah keeps Stedman around because she wants her audience to accept her as a normal woman with a man in her life, but from what I saw during those four years I can tell you there's nothing there with Stedman," he said. "Nothing at all."

"He's simply a fixture in her life," Mr Van Sweden added. "Window-dressing."

And according to Vernon Winfrey, Oprah has admitted that she was not in love with Mr Graham.

"I'm like ... not in love," she told him, according to the book.

She did reportedly have one affair with a man - Entertainment Tonight's John Tesh - while the two were working in Nashville.

According to one of Mr Tesh's ex-girlfriends, he broke things off because he could not deal with the stigma of being an interracial couple.

"He said one night he looked down and saw his white body next to her black body and couldn't take it any more," Mr Tesh's former girlfriend said.

"He walked out in the middle of the night." Winfrey has played coy on Tesh.

The book claims Ms King and others in Oprah's entourage worked hard to keep a tight grip on employees in order to keep her out of the tabloids.

"I thought I would be working for the warm and fuzzy person I saw on television," a former employee at Winfrey's Harpo production company said.

"But, God, I was conned. It's a cult at Harpo. So oppressive it's frightening."

Perhaps the biggest secret to be talked about in the book is left a secret.

Oprah allegedly does not know the true identity of her father.

Ms Esters told Kelley who he is, on the condition she not publish the information until Winfrey's mother comes clean to her daughter.

"And you'll know when that happens because Oprah will probably have a show on finding your real father," Ms Esters said. "As I said, the girl wastes nothing."

Originally published as Oprah Winfrey's 'made-up' childhood