What happened to Miss Cleo?

Miss Cleo, the iconic TV psychic of the late ’90s, is a name that many late-night channel surfers and ’90s nostalgia buffs will undoubtedly recognize. But her rise and fall is as intriguing as the psychic readings she once offered.

Born Youree Dell Harris in 1962 in Los Angeles, Miss Cleo began her career as a playwright and actress, with little indication that she would one day become the face of a controversial psychic hotline. It wasn’t until the late 1990s, when she began working for the Psychic Readers Network, that she adopted the persona of “Miss Cleo” and the fake Jamaican accent that would become her trademark.

Miss Cleo’s legal troubles and revelations

Miss Cleo gained notoriety as a spokeswoman for the Psychic Readers Network, a pay-per-call service that offered callers free psychic readings. With her distinctive Jamaican accent and her flair for the dramatic, Miss Cleo quickly became a well-known face in the crystal ball landscape. 

But as the old saying goes, the higher you climb, the harder you have chances of falling. That’s exactly what happened here. In 2002, the Federal Trade Commission came calling, charging the Psychic Readers Network with deceptive advertising practices. Turns out, those “free” readings weren’t so free after all, and callers were being charged up to $4.99 per minute for the privilege of hearing Miss Cleo’s dulcet tones.

The fallout was swift and severe. The Psychic Readers Network was forced to cancel $500 million in customer bills and pay a $5 million fine. Miss Cleo’s reputation took a serious hit after she acknowledged that the Jamaican accent had been a put-on and that she had never actually been to Jamaica.

She continued to work in various capacities, including voice-over work for commercials and video games. Notably, she voiced a character in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. But her days as an American sensation were behind her, and as the years went on, Miss Cleo largely faded from the public eye.

Miss Cleo’s story is an instance of the power of persona, and the ways in which we can be seduced by a good story, even when we know it’s not entirely true. The possibility and lingering desire to reclaim her former fame came to an end in 2016 when she passed away from colon cancer at the age of 53.

In 2022, HBO released a documentary about her life and career called Call Me Miss Cleo, which offered a nuanced portrayal of the woman, making us think that perhaps the most fitting tribute to Miss Cleo is not to remember her as a fraud or a punchline. As she herself might have said, “The cards don’t lie, honey. But sometimes, the truth is more complicated than we’d like to admit.”