Published 20:06 IST, October 11th 2019
Oprah Winfrey: 'No regrets about not having kids or getting married'
Oprah Winfrey, the American talk show host, claims that she has no regrets about not having kids or getting married despite getting engaged to Stedman Graham.
Oprah Winfrey, the American talk show host, claims that she has no regrets about not having kids or getting married despite getting engaged to her long-time partner Stedman Graham in the year 1992. While talking to an international media outlet, Winfrey said that her job has allowed her to see “the depth of responsibility and sacrifice” that is required to become a mother and she doesn't have the ability to compartmentalise the way other women do. The 65-year-old met Graham at a charity event in 1986 but never decided to walk down the aisle as she believes that they wouldn't have been together if they would've gotten married.
"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.' I don't have the ability to compartmentalise 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 said.
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She said, "Both he and I now say, 'If we had married, we would not be together,'" she said. "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 on motherhood
Winfrey also explained that the decision to not have children was never because of lack of caring as the talk show host refers the students in 'Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls', a boarding school, as her beautiful South African daughters and describes her relationship far less fraught than many tied by biological motherhood. She claims to get the inspiration of mothering and nurturing and encouraging people to become the most authentic, truthful version of oneself from none other than the writer Maya Angelou.
“I have not had one regret about [not having kids or getting married]. 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," she said.
(With inputs from ANI)
Updated 20:31 IST, October 11th 2019