Why Oprah Winfrey didn't have kids? TV legend stands by her decision: 'No regrets'
In an interview with People Magazine, Oprah Winfrey once explained the reason behind her decision of choosing not to marry or have kids. She claimed that she had no regrets.
The 68-year old legendary billionaire opened up about not marrying and not having children as the magazine celebrated extraordinary "Women Changing the World". She spoke about her long time partner Stedman Graham and how they were engaged.
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Winfrey met Graham, 71, at a charity event in 1986 and did think of having children once the then couple were engaged. “At one point in Chicago, I had bought an additional apartment because I was thinking, ‘Well, if we get married, I’m going to need room for children',” Winfrey said. As we know, this never came to be. Winfrey, however, did say that she saw "the depth of responsibility and sacrifice that is actually required to be a mother". This opinion was shared during one of the episodes of 'The Oprah Winfrey Show'.
The host of 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' said, "I realized, ‘Whoa, I’m talking to a lot of messed-up people, and they are messed up because they had mothers and fathers who were not aware of how serious that job is." She added, "I don’t have the ability to compartmentalize the way I see other women do. It is why, throughout my years, I have had the highest regard for women who choose to be at home [with] their kids, because I don’t know how you do that all day long. Nobody gives women the credit they deserve.”
Winfrey continued, "I used to think about this all the time, that I was working these 17-hour days, and so were my producers, and then I go home and I have my two dogs and I have Stedman, who’s letting me be who I need to be in the world. He’s never demanding anything from me like, ‘Where’s my breakfast? Where’s my dinner?’ Never any of that, which I believed would have changed had we married.”
She added, "Both he and I now say, ‘If we had married, we would not be together. No question about it — we would not stay married, because of what that would have meant to him, and I would have had my own ideas about it.”
Winfrey has no regrets and she stands by her decision. She said, "I have not had one regret about that. I also believe that part of the reason why I don’t have regrets is because I got to fulfill it in the way that was best for me: the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa. Those girls fill that maternal fold that I perhaps would have had. In fact, they overfill — I’m overflowed with maternal.”