Heartbreaking story of Oprah Winfrey's 'dark past' when she lost son at 14: 'I had been blaming myself'
Oprah Winfrey's huge success has appealed to her audience for years now. However, the talk show host's life has not been easy. She has openly spoken about being sexually abused at the hands of family members when she was young. She has also spoken about a baby she had when she was 14 years old.
Winfrey provided more details about the baby after the news became public. She gave birth to a baby boy at the age of 14, but he died after spending several days in the hospital. The news of her baby was first revealed in 1990 when one of her relatives spoke up about it. Winfrey has opened up about the heartbreaking aftermath of her pregnancy and the baby's death since then.
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'I carried the secret into my future'
"The first time it happened to me, I took to my bed and cried for three days. A member of my family who has since passed away had gone to Florida, headquarters for The National Enquirer, sat in a room, told them the story of my hidden shame—and left their offices $19,000 richer," Winfrey said, according to Oprah.com.
"I would tell no one until I felt safe enough to share my dark past: the years I was sexually abused, from age 10 to 14, my resulting promiscuity as a teenager, and finally, at 14, my becoming pregnant. I was so ashamed, I hid the pregnancy until my swollen ankles and belly gave me away. The baby died in the hospital weeks later," she added.
Winfrey said she went back to school and kept her pregnancy a secret. "My fear was that if I were found out, I would be expelled. So I carried the secret into my future, always afraid that if anyone discovered what had happened, they, too, would expel me from their lives. Even when I found the courage to publicly reveal the abuse, I still carried the shame and kept the pregnancy a secret," she wrote.
Winfrey said she felt "liberated" after the secret was out. "I realized that all those years, I had been blaming myself. What I learned for sure was that holding the shame was the greatest burden of all. That, even more than the betrayal, is what had kept me in bed from Friday to Monday," she said.
'Canaan means new land, new life'
Winfrey spoke at an event at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia, in 2015, and revealed the name of the child. "I did an interview with a reporter before I came to Australia and she said you should name the baby son who died," Winfrey said.
"So I have named him; I had a little boy named Canaan," she added, according to People. "I did have a son. And I named him Canaan because Canaan means new land, new life."