Oprah Winfrey has graced the cover of the newest issue of People magazine and the media mogul uses the platform to open up about a number of life-changing events and decisions.
For starters, she talks about her decision not to have children. Apparently, she “has seen too much.” Oprah explains, “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 expands, “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.”
Oprah also comments on her decision to move on from “sensationalist TV,” citing two pivotal episodes. “It was the KKK skinhead show [during which fights broke out repeatedly and one guest was kicked out for profanity] and then the show with a man, his wife . . . and his mistress,” Winfrey recalls. “At the time, the producers thought this was one of the greatest bookings we could ever get. We thought, ‘He’s agreed to come on with his girlfriend? This is unbelievable.’ Then there was a moment when the man says to his wife, ‘You know what? There’s nothing you can do about [the affair], because [my mistress] is pregnant.’ We were live and I didn’t know he was going to tell her, nor did the producers know.”