Getty In this handout image provided by Harpo Productions and released on March 5, 2021, Oprah Winfrey interviews Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on A CBS Primetime Special premiering on CBS on March 7, 2021.
Oprah Winfrey decided not to get married or have children, a decision which she has said she has no regrets about making.
Oprah interviewed Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in a highly anticipated two-hour interview, which airs on CBS at 8 p.m. Sunday, March 7, 2021. Among the topics they expect to discuss is the birth of their second child. The couple renounced their royal duties and now live in California with their son, Archie, who was born in 2019.
In the interview, Markle called her time in the royal family “almost unsurvivable.”
Here’s what you need to know:
Oprah Had a Baby As a Young Teen After She Was Raped & the Baby Died as an Infant
Today’s the day.
Oprah with Meghan and Harry: A Primetime Special airs tonight at 8/7c on @CBS. #OprahMeghanHarry
Oprah survived extensive physical and sexual abuse, and she was raped as a young girl. When she was 14, she learned she was pregnant and later gave birth to a baby boy. Tragically, the boy lived only two weeks. She told David Letterman in a report written by the Irish Examiner that she grieved the baby but saw it as a new beginning.
“I buried all of my feelings about it,” she said. “I really felt like that baby’s life — that baby coming into the world — really gave me new life. That’s how I processed it for myself.”
She went on to say that if she could change anything from her past, she wouldn’t do it. Her experiences helped her to form a deep empathy, which has helped her succeed in her career.
“I would take nothing from my journey,” she said.
“Everybody’s looking for the same thing,” she continued. “I know what it feels like to not be wanted … you can use it as a stepping stone to build great empathy for people.”
Oprah Once Planned to Have Children But Realized All She Would Have to Sacrifice to Be a Good Mother & Has No Regrets
At one time, Oprah planned to get married and have children, and even bought a place with extra space. But then she went on to found The Oprah Winfrey Show, and thought about the sacrifices that starting a family would involve in being a good mother. It was in part her interviews with people that made her realize the extent of the sacrifice she would have to make.
“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, according to The List. “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.”
She went onto say that she has no regrets, and that some of her work has filled a maternal void in her life.
“I have not had one regret about that. I also 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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Did Oprah Winfrey Have Children? Why She Decided Not to Get Married or Have Kids