Oprah Winfrey discusses why she never had children, had different dreams for herself

Oprah Winfrey is opening up about her decision not to have children, saying they would’ve resented her for how involved she is with her career.

She talked candidly to The Hollywood Reporter’s Power 100 issue, noting when her friends were daydreaming about motherhood in middle school, she had other plans for herself.

“I was having daydreams about how I could be Martin Luther King,” she said.
Winfrey also explained, “If I had kids, my kids would hate me. They would have ended up on the equivalent of the Oprah show talking about me; because something would have had to suffer and it would’ve probably been them.”

TIME notes that Winfrey is extremely involved in the lives of the girls at her Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. She emails with them daily, in fact, she starts her day off giving them any advice they ask for.

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

Winfrey is the recent recipient of the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award.

image: CBS