Mara Brock Akil’s New Novel About Betrayal, Shame & Redemption with Oprah

**Oprah Winfrey** (0:00)
Mara Brock Akil is bringing her gift of storytelling to the world of fiction in her debut novel.

**Mara Brock Akil** (0:08)
I like when you say it.

**Oprah Winfrey** (0:09)
The debut novel, The Revelation of Dionne Daphne.

**Mara Brock Akil** (0:13)
This young woman is on the train. She's on the train headed outside the city of New York because she's ashamed that she has to take an HIV test.
Because two nights prior, her ex of five years tells her, I have HIV and you need to go get tested. She has to write down all the names of her lovers, and at the top of the list is her stepfather.

**Oprah Winfrey** (0:35)
Is her stepfather.

**Thando** (0:36)
I was as shocked as she was, if not more.

**Oprah Winfrey** (0:40)
What is so interesting for me having been a victim of sexual abuse from a very young age, nine years old.

**Mara Brock Akil** (0:47)
Nine for me too.

**Oprah Winfrey** (0:50)
Nine years old. Being raped at nine and then continuously sexually molested over the years by various boyfriends of my mothers and my cousins, these older men.
You know, you just said the story is for everybody, but was the story also for you?

**Mara Brock Akil** (1:04)
Oh, absolutely.

**Oprah Winfrey** (1:04)
So you have written about it in the books through Dionne Daphne. Do you mind sharing what actually happened to you?

**Mara Brock Akil** (1:13)
I would share this.

**Oprah Winfrey** (1:17)
Hi there, everybody. Thanks for hanging out with us here on The Oprah Podcast today.
Television luminary and creator Mara Brock Akil. She has written, she has produced, she has directed over 400 episodes. Did you even know that yourself?

**Mara Brock Akil** (1:34)
You know, not until we had to count for the bio. I was like, really?

**Oprah Winfrey** (1:37)
Over 400 episodes, that's a lot of work of some of the most celebrated shows, Girlfriends, which is having its own resurgence.

**Mara Brock Akil** (1:46)
I know, 25 years. 25 years and being on Netflix for five years has just garnered a whole new audience. That's right. The 16-year-olds love me, Oprah.
It's like Girlfriends is like, you know, the forever of their time, I guess.

**Oprah Winfrey** (2:03)
Absolutely. Okay, so there's Girlfriends and there's Being Mary Jane and there's The Game, y'all, and our latest smash hit series for Netflix forever, forever, forever, forever, which now is, we're going to have a season two.

**Mara Brock Akil** (2:18)
We're going to have a season two. We start rolling cameras tomorrow. Yes.

**Oprah Winfrey** (2:21)
That is so exciting to hear. Okay, so you were just sharing with me, share with the audience, you're walking down the street.
Forever has been up on Netflix now for?

**Mara Brock Akil** (2:31)
I think it was about day three or day four, and we were number one. And you know, when you think about it, like number one, you're like, oh, wait a minute, we're number one in the world.
And there's all these people on the street, you know, in New York is, and I was thinking, they don't know it's me. They don't know that me right now for how?

**Oprah Winfrey** (2:47)
They don't know you. I'm the number one.

**Mara Brock Akil** (2:51)
And my little girl just was happy. She was, I was so happy. I was walking down the street smiling in New York. And then I think the next day got the call, that the official call.

**Oprah Winfrey** (3:03)
But they were picking it up.

**Mara Brock Akil** (3:04)
They were picking it up for season two.

**Oprah Winfrey** (3:06)
That's so wonderful.

**Mara Brock Akil** (3:07)
Yeah, it was wonderful. It was, it was, it was so wonderful. I, I, I celebrate so much. I broke my toe.

**Oprah Winfrey** (3:14)
You broke your toe.

**Mara Brock Akil** (3:15)
Yeah, I just was dancing around my apartment and just in glee. You know, those, those private moments that are, are yours.

**Oprah Winfrey** (3:23)
Nothing like a broken toe memory.

**Mara Brock Akil** (3:25)
I have a broken toe moment.

**Oprah Winfrey** (3:27)
And so now Mara Brock Akil is bringing her gift of storytelling to the world of fiction in her debut novel.

**Mara Brock Akil** (3:36)
I like when you say it.

**Oprah Winfrey** (3:37)
The debut novel, The Revelation of Dionne Daphne. Welcome to the tea house, Mara Brock Akil.

**Mara Brock Akil** (3:44)
Thank you for having me. I'm so overjoyed to be here.

**Oprah Winfrey** (3:48)
The fact that you are now diving into this whole new world of writing or is it, is it a new world of writing going into the novel form?