The Reason Oprah Never Married Or Had Kids

Oprah Winfrey consciously chose not to marry her longtime boyfriend, Stedman Graham, or have children (not including the child she bore at the age of 14, who died shortly after birth). Although Winfrey's net worth could support endless families if she wanted to, the beloved former talk show host has always been content to go things alone.

Throughout her career, Winfrey has spoken at length about why she decided not to become a mother — and, most importantly, why she doesn't regret it. "If I had kids, my kids would hate me," Winfrey shared with The Hollywood Reporter about her demanding schedule. "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 imagined a reality where her children turned out like some of the complicated guests she'd interviewed over the years when speaking to People in 2019. "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,'" Winfrey stated. After revealing that she isn't able to compartmentalize the way some other parents can, Winfrey told Good Housekeeping in 2017, "When people were pressuring me to get married and have children, I knew I was not going to be a person that ever regretted not having them." Instead, she added that she feels like a mother to all children. In addition to her reasons for never having a family of her own, Winfrey also has her reasons for never marrying her life partner, Graham.

Oprah Winfrey is also quite content with never becoming a bride — even though Stedman Graham was previously married in a union that produced a child of his own. "Nobody believes it, but it's true. The only time I brought it up was when I said to Stedman, 'What would have happened if we had actually gotten married?'" Winfrey admitted to Vogue in 2017. "And the answer is: 'We wouldn't be together.' We would not have stayed together, because marriage requires a different way of being in this world." Winfrey also explained that their individual interpretations of marital roles differed too greatly to be compatible.

In fact, Graham feels similarly to his partner. During a 2003 interview with Larry King, he explained why he and Winfrey wouldn't be getting married. "Well, I think Oprah explained it pretty good, you know, in an article," Graham said (via CNN). "And you know, she travels and I travel and it's — you know, she has her life and I have my life, and it's a big life." 

He also revealed that fitting marriage into their lives at the time was difficult, even though the love and care they felt for each other was what mattered most. So while Winfrey has had her fair share of tragedies, it seems like a bad marriage won't be one of them.