TV legend Oprah Winfrey has lived an extraordinary life, and she has definitely done things her own way. Over the years, many fans have wondered why the 65-year-old billionaire mogul has never married or had children, and she says that it was a decision made years ago that not only saved her relationship with Stedman Graham, but it’s one she doesn’t regret.
Opening up to People Magazine for their issue that celebrates “Women Changing the World,” Winfrey said that after she met Graham in 1986 at a charity event she did have thoughts about starting a family.
Winfrey explained that there was a point when she was in Chicago that she bought an additional apartment because she thought she would need the room if she and Steadman married and had kids.
But, as The Oprah Winfrey Show took off and sent her career into the stratosphere, Winfrey started realizing that many of the guests on her show were “messed-up people” who were that way because their parents weren’t aware of how serious the job was and the “depth of sacrifice” it took.
“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,” said Winfrey.
She went on to explain that she used to always think about how both she and her producers were working 17-hour days, and she had the luxury of going home to her two dogs and Graham – who was letting her be who she needed to be in the world instead of making demands.
Winfrey says that if she and Graham would have gotten married, she believes their relationship dynamic would have changed and they would have eventually split. Winfrey says that there is no question she and Graham wouldn’t have stayed married because they each have different ideas about what marriage means to them.
Winfrey made it very clear she doesn’t have one regret about not getting married or having kids. Instead, she says was able to fulfill that need in a different way – by opening the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa.
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