Oprah Winfrey Reveals Why She Never Had Children: "My Kids Would Hate Me"

"Something [in my life] would have had to suffer and it would've probably been them," the media mogul told THR

By Alyssa Toomey Dec 12, 2013 12:29 AMTags
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While Oprah Winfrey undoubtedly has a killer career, the media mogul has made many sacrifices in her personal life, one of those being motherhood.

During a sit-down interview with The Hollywood Reporter—the 59-year-old star, who received a Screen Actors Guild Award Nomination for her work in Lee Daniels' The Butler this morning—opened up about her decision to forego having children while admitting she doesn't regret her choice.

"If I had kids, my kids would hate me," the former talk show host told THR. "They would have ended up on the equivalent of the Oprah show talking about me; because something [in my life] would have had to suffer and it would've probably been them."

Winfrey also admitted she's never found the idea of parenthood particularly appealing—even when she was a little girl—and always had different dreams than her peers.

"Gayle [King, Winfrey's best friend and now a mother of two] was the kind of kid who, in seventh grade Home Ec class, was writing down her name and the names of her children," she recalled. "While she was having those kind of daydreams, I was having daydreams about how I could be Martin Luther King."

While Winfrey may not have children of her own, the star of Lee Daniels' The Butler dedicates a great deal of time to the students attending the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, the school which she opened in 2007 and to which she has contributed more than $100 million.

Oprah tells THR she begins her day every morning at 7:30 a.m. (no alarm clock needed!) by exchanging emails with the girls.

"I'm responding to everything from 'I'm feeling lost' to 'I need advice about a boy,'" she shared.

The busy OWN boss also makes time to visit the school twice a year, and she most recently opened up her Montecito home for a Thanksgiving dinner with former students who are attending U.S. universities.

So, while Winfrey will openly admit she's never had babies on her brain; she is still dishing out motherly advice every day.