Iyanla Vanzant

Iyanla Vanzant was born Rhonda Eva Harris on 13 September 1953, in the back of a taxi in Brooklyn, New York. Her mother, Sarah Jefferson, died of breast cancer when she was a small child, and she was raised by paternal relatives.

Her childhood included sexual abuse by a relative when she was nine. She married at 18 and had three children, Damon, Gemmia and Nisa, by the age of 21.

Her first marriage was physically abusive, and in 1980 she left with her three children. These experiences later became central to her teaching on healing and self-worth.

As a single mother, Vanzant returned to education and graduated summa cum laude from Medgar Evers College in 1983 with a degree in public administration.

She then earned a Juris Doctor from the City University of New York School of Law at Queens College in 1988. She worked as a public defender in Philadelphia for a few years before turning to spiritual work.

In 2001 she earned a master’s degree in spiritual psychology from the University of Santa Monica.

In 1983 Vanzant was initiated as a priestess in the Yoruba tradition and given the name Iyanla, meaning “great mother”. She is also an ordained New Thought minister.

Her early books, Tapping the Power Within (1992) and Acts of Faith: Daily Meditations for People of Color (1993), established her as a new voice in spiritual self-help, particularly for Black women.

In the late 1990s Vanzant became a regular guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show, where her direct but compassionate advice on self-worth, relationships and healing won a large following.

Her books from this period, including In the Meantime and One Day My Soul Just Opened Up (both 1998), became bestsellers. In 2000 Ebony named her one of the 100 most influential Black Americans.

After years away from Oprah Winfrey’s platform, Vanzant returned with Iyanla: Fix My Life, which premiered on the Oprah Winfrey Network in 2012 and ran until 2021. She also served as a teacher on Oprah’s Lifeclass.

On the series she worked with individuals and families facing addiction, family conflict, broken relationships and unresolved trauma, using direct questioning and spiritual counselling. The show became one of OWN’s signature programmes and won NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Reality Series in 2014 and 2015.

The early 2000s brought major setbacks. Vanzant left The Oprah Winfrey Show to host her own ABC daytime talk show, Iyanla (2001 to 2002), which was cancelled after one season, and her relationship with Winfrey became strained.

On Christmas Day 2003 her daughter Gemmia died of a rare form of colon cancer at age 30. Vanzant divorced her second husband in 2007, and in 2023 her youngest daughter, Nisa, also died.

She has spoken openly about grief and depression, and wrote about this period in Peace from Broken Pieces (2010). She and Winfrey reconciled publicly in 2011.

Vanzant has continued to write throughout her television career. Later titles include Peace from Broken Pieces (2010), Trust (2015) and Forgiveness: 21 Days to Forgive Everyone for Everything (2017).

Her official site says she has written seventeen books, translated into twenty-three languages. She continues to teach through workshops, retreats and the Inner Visions Institute for Spiritual Development, which trains spiritual life coaches and ministers.

Vanzant’s teaching centres on personal accountability, spiritual growth and self-love. She urges people to confront the stories they tell about themselves and to take ownership of their healing.

• Identifying and releasing past trauma
• Forgiving oneself and others
• Building a daily connection to a higher power

Her blunt, practical style has made spiritual ideas accessible to a wide audience and has contributed to conversations about healing and mental well-being in the African American community.