Most people would like to avoid discussing their difficult pasts. Oprah Winfrey followed suit. It wasn’t until her half-sister told everyone about her horrible history that she opened up. The TV executive was devastated when a member of her family betrayed her.
Oprah Winfrey is a self-made billionaire and television personality who is childless. She does, however, consider the young ladies who attend her Academy to be her “daughters.”
Here are some details regarding the well-known daytime TV personality’s traumatic past, her feelings towards having kids, and her “daughters,” who she claims have improved her as a mother.
Even though things haven’t always been easy for her, she has always tried to be kind and assist those who are less fortunate than her.
Winifred’s pregnancy and her mother’s decision
At fourteen years old, Winfrey became pregnant. She kept the baby’s birth a secret for seven months. She said that she felt alone, which is why she protected the unborn kid, on OWN’s “Life Class” programme:
“I felt so cut off from everything, and I still do, so I saved that baby.” I never felt like my child doing it.
On September 26, 2016, a press conference for the film “Greenleaf” was conducted at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. | Pictures sourced from Getty Images
Winfrey claimed that her swollen ankles and protruding belly gave away her pregnancy, and that it made her feel horrible to keep it a secret:
“I
I was hampered in many ways by keeping that secret and carrying that guilt. “I recall being taken to the detention home when my mother was about to kick me out of the house at age 14,” Winfrey went on.
She discussed what had occurred and her feelings at the time. She described it as the most painful, perplexing, and emotional experience of her early life.
Winfrey continued by saying that she was thinking about how she had been molested by family members since she was nine years old while she was being transported to the detention facility and awaiting processing.
The well-known media magnate said that she had an unintended pregnancy as a result of sexual assault she had suffered between the ages of nine and 10.
Winfrey claimed to have experienced a moment when she thought, “Now I am officially a bad girl,” as she looked around the detention home at all the other girls who were there because they were “bad girls.”
She thought to herself, “I’m in this situation, so from now on, people will call me a “bad girl” for the rest of my life.” She convinced herself that she wasn’t supposed to be there even though she was waiting to be processed:
“I didn’t even think I was a bad girl; I have no idea how I ended up in a place for bad girls.”
Fortunately for her, a woman emerged while she was contemplating and informed her and her late mother, Vernita Lee, that she would not have room and that she would need to return in two weeks.
When Winfrey was a little child, she had to leave her mother behind and move in with her dad. She claimed that was her saviour.
Grace’s escape and a fresh opportunity
After escaping being taken to a correctional facility, the Mississippian lady felt as though she had been given another opportunity at life and said:
“I felt like I had been saved and that someone up there had realised I wasn’t a bad girl after that.”
“I didn’t even know how this happened to me after giving birth to a child when I was 14 years old, but now I was given another chance,” Winfrey remarked.
After everything she had gone through, the things her father told her after her prematurely born baby passed away in the hospital offered her hope.
After the youngster passed away, I recall my dad telling me, “This is your second chance.” The 69-year-old stated, “This is your chance to stop what you’re doing right now and do something with your life.”
When Winfrey heard her father say, “I took that chance and understood for myself, that now I know better so I can do better,” she had an epiphany even if she was unable to express it.
Winfrey’s Secret Revealed to the World Later’s author stated that she had assumed her secret would remain a secret until she was able to adequately process her own intense sentiments and emotions.
Winfrey was incensed to learn that Patricia Lloyd, her half-sister, had received payment for the story. Llyod was a “deeply disturbed, drug-dependent person,” according to her.
The TV personality was worried that after she became pregnant, her promiscuous behaviour would get her expelled from school. After a while, she expressed fear that it would negatively impact her lucrative career and said:
“I kept the information to myself out of fear that I would be shunned by everyone who learned what had happened.”
Following the public release of her account of becoming pregnant as a young girl, Winfrey claimed she could not settle down. She discussed how she handled the consequences in her essay “My First”:
I cried for three days straight before I could stay in bed. I was really depressed. Very wounded. lied to. How could this individual have hurt me in this way?
“I recall my boyfriend Stedman Graham walking into the bedroom that Sunday afternoon,” Winfrey recalled. Because the drapes were closed, the room was dark. He appeared to be crying as he stepped in front of me and handed me the newspaper. I apologise so much, he said. “You don’t deserve this,” I said.
“At the age of fourteen, pregnant! You evil girl! Removed!” According to Winfrey, she assumed that everyone she saw on the street would yell and point at her.
However, she didn’t receive any similar treatment from anyone, not even acquaintances or strangers. She was horrified by this and subsequently said:
That caught me off guard. Everyone regarded me in the same way. I never received an answer in the twenty years I waited.
She soon discovered that sharing the secret with others let her feel liberated and that she was deeply ashamed of herself for having kept it a secret for so long:
“I soon discovered that revealing the secret felt good.” I was certain that the toughest thing of all was having to carry the disgrace.
Reflections on Parenting and Her Daughters
In an exclusive interview with People published in October 2019, Winfrey discussed her decision to forgo having children. She claimed to have considered having a child when she initially became engaged to Graham, whom she had met at a charity event in 1986:
“I once purchased a second flat in Chicago because I reasoned that I would need space for children if we got married.”
Although that didn’t occur, Winfrey claimed to have witnessed the sacrifices and obligations that come with motherhood while appearing on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”
“This used to bother me a lot: after working 17-hour days with my producers, I came home to my two dogs and Stedman, who allows me to be who I need to be in the world.”
For the same reason, Winfrey claimed she didn’t regret choosing not to have biological children. “I have not had a single regret about that,” she continued. This was partially due to the fact that she fulfilled her pledge through her Academy for Girls, which was the method that suited her the best.
“Maybe those girls are giving me the maternal embrace I would have received.” The beaming diva remarked, “I’m overflowing with motherhood—their tanks are too full.”
The former talk show presenter achieved her five-year aim of providing impoverished girls in South Africa with a secure learning environment when she founded The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in 2007.
Winfrey lovingly refers to her kids as “daughters,” and they call her “Mom O.” Every Thanksgiving, she invites the first graduating class from the boarding school to her Montecito home for a holiday celebration.
In 2022, Oprah extended her invitation to the first graduating class to spend the holiday at her home once more. The young woman and her “daughter-girls” stayed with her over the holiday.
Having a staff to greet guests when Oprah hosts them for Thanksgiving is one of the particular customs she shares with the first graduating class.
Paul, a husband of one of the women, became a guest in 2022. He heard someone approaching the house to celebrate Thanksgiving while they were performing an African song.
Oprah reported that Thanksgiving was going well at her house after the video went viral. Before supper, she then posted a video of herself with her “daughter-girls,” but there was a catch.
Instead of praying over their meal that Thanksgiving, a woman who was unable to attend brought them a song to perform. Everybody at the dinner table sung the lines as Oprah read them.
Oprah made sure that Thanksgiving was not the end of her generosity. Many people are aware of Oprah’s Christmas list of her favourite gifts for all the women.
She is seen distributing boxes to each of the women seated at the table in the video that she posted. Their expressions upon opening the gifts revealed a mixture of gratitude and shock.
The women were chatting animatedly about the gifts they had received as the camera panned around the table to capture each woman’s face.
The “The Colour Purple” actress previously said that she frequently has wonderful conversations and eats delectable meals with her daughter-girls. According to Winfrey, it epitomises what family is all about—a space where you can be who you are and express what you want.
One of the most significant lessons Winfrey ever received from Sade—one of her “daughters” who had been residing with her and Graham since May 2020—was discussed. They overheard Sade telling them she needed time to herself.
Winfrey reasoned that the girl should spend some time alone in quarantine before she realised what it entailed.
She commended Sade for telling them what she needed, even though she knew it would hurt their feelings, especially at this particular moment. Winfrey’s life is full even though she is childless because to her lover and “daughter-girls.