Rhonda Byrne (née Izon; born 1951, Melbourne, Australia) is an Australian television writer and producer. Her New Thought book The Secret (based on a film she produced of the same name) is based on the law of attraction. She wrote several sequels to the book, including The Power, The Magic and Hero, as well as other books that relate to The Secret.
Byrne was born in 1951, Melbourne, Australia, to parents Ronald and Irene Izon. She worked as an executive producer for television, with credits including Oz Encounters: UFO’s in Australia (1997), Sensing Murder: Easy Street (2003), Loves Me, Loves Me Not (2003), and The World’s Greatest Commercials (1995 – 2004).
After the death of her father in 2004, Byrne became very depressed. At the instigation of her daughter Hayley, she read The Science of Getting Rich (1910) by Wallace D. Wattles. She discovered positive thinking, the laws of attraction, and how to find further success in life. Hence, she started doing research on the subject and the project of The Secret was born.
According to Byrne’s research, she claims that all great men in history knew about the Law of attraction (New Thought), suggesting Abraham Lincoln, Ludwig van Beethoven, Winston Churchill and others. Furthering her research, she found current proponents of the laws of attraction include author Jack Canfield, entrepreneur John Assaraf, visionary Michael Beckwith, John Demartini, Bob Proctor, James Arthur Ray, Joseph Vitale, Lisa Nichols, Marie Diamond, and John Gray.
Byrne found success with both the DVD and the book of The Secret. The Secret was published in 2006, and by the spring of 2007 had sold more than 19 million copies in more than 40 languages, and more than two million DVDs. The Secret book and film have grossed $300 million.
In 2007 Byrne was featured in Time Magazine’s TIME 100: The Most Influential People, which is a list of 100 people who shape the world every year. Since 2010, she has been featured in Watkins Mind Body Spirit magazine’s annual list of The 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People. She gained mainstream popularity and commercial success after appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
