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The Story Paulo Coelho Never Shared Until Now

Season 5 Episode 525
Aired on 09/14/2014 | CC
During his first American television interview, on "Super Soul Sunday," Paulo Coelho, author of The Alchemist, relates a story he's never shared publicly before. In 2011, his agent's father died from a heart attack. "And then she thought that everybody was going to die from a heart attack," he says. "So she obliged everybody to go do this stress test."

Paulo, who leads a healthy lifestyle, resisted the test at first. However, when he finally took it, the results were shocking. "The [doctor] said, 'You are going to die in 30 days,'" he says in the video above. "I say, 'Oh, you are joking.' He said, 'No.'"

Paulo was slated for heart surgery the next day. Still, he says, he wasn't afraid for three reasons. Watch as he reveals them in an emotional conversation with Oprah.

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