*Oprah has spoken. Below is her statement as to why she's decided to end her daily show and move on to the next phase of her career and life:

"So here we are, halfway through the season 24. And it still means as much to me to spend an hour everyday with you as it did in 1986. So why walk away and make next season the last? Here is the real reason. I love this show. This show has been my life. And I love it enough to know when it's time to say goodbye. 25 years feels right in my bones and it feels right in my spirit. It's the perfect number, the exact right time."

      *Oprah Winfrey will reportedly end her talk show in September, 2011 after its 25th season on the air, and will spend the ensuing years focusing on her new cable network OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network).

       Chicago-based Harpo Productions Inc. said Thursday night that the talk show host will make an official announcement and give more details live on today's live broadcast of "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

     "Oprah will be ending her talk show. She'll be speaking about it in her live show," a spokesman from Harpo, Inc., told CNN.

       Winfrey started her broadcasting career in Nashville, Tenn., and Baltimore, Md., before relocating to Chicago in 1984 to host WLS-TV's morning talk show "A.M. Chicago."

      "The Oprah Winfrey Show", broadcast from Chicago on ABC stations across the United States, is the top-rated U.S. daytime talk show averaging 7.1 million viewers this year.

      OWN, a partnership with Discovery Networks, is likely to get underway in mid-2010.

      "I came from nothing," Winfrey wrote in the 1998 book "Journey to Beloved." "No power. No money. Not even my thoughts were my own. I had no free will. No voice. Now, I have the freedom, power, and will to speak to millions every day -- having come from nowhere."

      Forbes magazine has pegged Winfrey's net worth at close to $3 billion.