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OWNOprah Winfrey is opening up about why she never married or had children.
In an interview with People, Oprah says although marriage and motherhood weren’t exactly in her cards, she did consider it at one time.
“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, with the demands of her syndicated talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Winfrey says she started to think of “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,” Oprah continued. “Nobody gives women the credit they deserve.”
Winfrey says that her longtime boyfriend, Stedman Graham, also agrees that being married “would have changed” their relationship.
“Both he and I now say, ‘If we had married, we would not be together,’” she said. “No question about it.”
Looking back, Winfrey says she made the right decision.
“I…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.”
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