terry mcmillan, always good to see you. thank you so much for joining us today.alk to me a little bit about this new book. it's exciting. you decided to revisit "waiting to exhale" and bringing back to the lives of those four women. what's that like? >> it was like revisiting old friends, even though they weren't real. basically, i just had to get to know them again as real grownups and not as youthful women. >> so many of us remember not so much the book, but the movie and it had this happy ending, people felt rlly good and empowered. now we're returning more to the book style. did you have any struggle about that? >> no, but i wanted to make sure that people didn't think it was "waiting to exhale 2." a lot of those women that were preoccupied with back then don't seem to move them now. now they're learning how to start their lives over, reinvent themselves, re-evaluate their lives and how far they've come and what's left to do. i don't think 20 years ago they were thinking in those terms, at all. >> one of the things you have is internal validation. you're a be

then, best-selling author terry mcmillan and her gay ex-husband return.h." [ male announcer ] rockin out to the big hot pastrami. big. hot. pastrami. don't dare call it a cover band -- unless you're talking about covering freshly baked bread with layer upon layer of flavor-packed pastrami. this sub lays down power cords of tasteocity with pickles mean licks of mustard and riffs of melty, bubbly cheese. catch 'em before the fresh toasted tour leaves town. subway big hot pastrami. crank up the flavor at subway. >>> this is the scene outside university memorial hospital here in tucson. the memorial continues to grow all through the weekend. president obama is urging the nation to come together in prayer, reflection and a moment of silence later this morning. good morning, america. i'm george stephanopoulos here in tucson, as we remember all those who lost their lives as we think of those fighting for their lives, the 13 wounded along with congresswoman giffords. we've all been marveling, robin that she survived being shut point blank with a bullet. we'll get

terry mcmillan, you know, who really started areally, that was a watershed moment when you wrote "waiting to exhale" years ago. >> so they say. [cheering and applause] oprah: and now, it's come full circle with all the women from "waiting to exhale" in a new book called "getting to happy." will we--tell me how this experience helped you get to this book, and especially get to the title, "getting to happy." >> i realized that i needed to do what it would take to get me back to happy. oprah: and that was? >> and that was to basically let all of this go. oprah: let it go? >> i had to let it go. and also, you know, i never--you know, when i was ready to run him over, it wasn't because he was gay. i never hated his guts because oprah: because you know a lot of gay people thought that. >> no--i know, and that was part of the one reason why i sued. because i hated the idea of being known as a homophobe. jonathan deep down inside knew iyou know? was not homophobic. you know? i have too many gay and lesbian friends. too many to--but anyway, the bottom line is that-- oprah: yeah, we all know why yo