Oprah Winfrey did not want to get married or have kids because she 'can't compartmentalize the way other women do'
Despite never experiencing a marital life or having any kids, Oprah Winfrey has emphatically declared that she does not regret any of the decisions she has made in life.
In an interview with People magazine for their issue of extraordinary 'Women Changing the World', the 65-year-old billionaire mogul said that she did think about having babies even once after getting engaged to her longtime partner Stedman Graham, whom she met at a charity event in 1986.
"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.
However, she quickly gave up the idea of becoming a mother after talking to countless women on her hugely successful 'The Oprah Winfrey Show', which gave her a perspective on "the depth of responsibility and sacrifice that is actually required to be a mother."
"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 said.
"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 shared.
The philanthropist said that her decision to not get married or have kids worked in her favor because of Graham's undying support for her career.
"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," she revealed.
Winfrey continued, "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 that they both knew that "we would not be together" if they got married because their dynamics would completely have changed. And hence, it was a conscious decision that she stood by to this day.
"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," she said.
"Those girls fill that maternal fold that I perhaps would have had. In fact, they overfill — I'm overflowed with maternal," Winfrey added.