Why did Oprah Winfrey remain unmarried? Celebs wish talk show host as she celebrates 69th birthday
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LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Oprah Winfrey turned 69 on Sunday, January 29. Celebrating the icon, a star-studded party on January 28 was put on by Anastasia Beverly Hills, Anastasia Soare's beauty brand marking its 25th anniversary. A slew of A-list megastars attended the event including Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Lopez, Sofia Vergara, Priyanka Chopra, Jessica Alba, and Heidi Klum, among others, with many taking it to their social media channels to wish the media mogul.
Kim took to her Instagram story and wrote, as per ET Online, "Happy Birthday @oprah. [Sharon Stone] said it best last night toasting you that you mean the world to the world! Happy birthday!" and also shared a photo of Oprah wearing a brown sequinned blazer and her two-tiered birthday cake. Soare too wrote, "Happy birthday Oprah. 'You mean the world to the world,' like Sharon Stone said last night."
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Many continued to pour in their birthday wishes. Television presenter Gayle King, who has been a friend of Winfrey's for decades, wrote, "It’s a big day for all of us who love Oprah! Happy everything to the girl who lives her best life every day & does what she can to help everybody else do the same."
Actress Viola Davis wrote️, with a love heart emoji, "Happiest of birthdays to our national treasure, this icon, beauty ... Oprah! Love ya Sis." While 'Scandal' actress Kerry Washington wrote, "There’s no brighter light than today’s birthday goddess, Oprah. Thank you for all that you do. Sending you so much love today."
'As I turn 69, I choose not to focus on the number'
Oprah too shared a message to her fans in which she spoke about the nature of birthdays and reflected on her own past year. She wrote in a post on her website, "Today, as many of you know, is my 69th birthday. For me, it is such a reward to be turning 69 and to be strong and healthy. This time last year, I was getting over a double knee operation, and now I have never felt better. As I turn 69, I choose not to focus on the number. For me, the number has always just been a marker. Instead, I choose to celebrate the time I've spent living, taking note of all the shifts, the wins, the accomplishments, how much I've grown over the past year and I look forward to all that is to come."
Oprah's journey through the years
She has been an inspiration to many all around the world. But her childhood had its own struggles. In 2021, Oprah in her mental health-focused series 'The Me You Can't See', spoke about being sexually abused as a child. "At nine and 10 and 11 and 12 years old, I was raped by my 19-year-old cousin,” said Oprah, who became pregnant at 14 with a son who died just hours after birth. “I didn’t know what rape was, I certainly wasn’t aware of the word. I had no idea what sex was, I had no idea where babies came from. I didn’t even know what was happening to me, and I kept that secret," she narrated, quotes Independent. And added, "You see there really is no darker secret than sexual abuse. I am telling you about myself so that maybe the closet where so many sexual abuse victims and their abusers hide might swing open just a crack today, and let some light in."
Her relationship with Stedman Graham
Since 1986, the same year her show debuted, Oprah has been in a serious relationship with partner Stedman Graham, a former athlete, and sportswear model. Talking about Stedman, she wrote in 2020, “I thought he was nice enough, but I wasn't that impressed. He was polite, yes, and kind. The sort of guy who sits with an ailing friend. Tall and handsome, for sure. But actually too handsome, I thought, to be interested in me. I figured he must be a player. So did all my producers. They warned me not to get involved with that Stedman guy.”
She added, “So I proceeded with caution, even with a friendship. It wasn’t until months later, when I learned he’d broken up with his girlfriend and had been inquiring about my dating status, that I gave him a serious thought.”
She said she soon realized he was "kind and supportive," months into the relationship, People reported. "Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo. But you want someone who'll help you catch the bus," she added. After six years together, the couple announced their engagement in 1992 but called the ceremony off the following year. However, they continued to be in a relationship.
Why did Oprah Winfrey remain unmarried?
Oprah told Vogue in 2017 about the reason why they didn't get married. She explained, "We would not have stayed together, because marriage requires a different way of being in this world. His interpretation of what it means to be a husband and what it would mean for me to be a wife would have been pretty traditional, and I would not have been able to fit into that." She also wrote on her website, "He and I agree that had we tied the marital knot, we would not still be together. Our relationship works because he created an identity beyond being “Oprah's man” (he teaches Identity Leadership around the world and has written multiple books on the subject). It’s what Gary Zukav defines as a spiritual partnership: partnership between equals for the purpose of spiritual growth."