No family, no regrets, says Oprah

LONDON: Oprah Winfrey has admitted that she would never have been as successful had she started a family.

The talk-show host, 59, who is worth more than £1.5 billion (R24.5bn), said she would have struggled to bring up children because she was so focused on her career.

Winfrey, who has never married, gave birth to a boy when she was 14, but he died shortly afterwards. But she said she had no regrets.

“If I had kids, my kids would hate me,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.

“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.”

The presenter, who started out as a newsreader for a local radio station in Nashville, drew an average of 13 million viewers a show at the peak of her TV career in the early 1990s.

She said success had caused tension with her relatives, adding: “When you’re the most successful person in your family, in your neighbourhood and in your town, everybody thinks you’re the First National Bank. I got to the point where nobody ever asked me for anything less than $5 000 (R84 700).”

Earlier this week, Winfrey was nominated for best supporting actress for her role in The Butler. – Daily Mail

SOLO: Oprah Winfrey