"I feel like I am a mother to the world's children."
Oprah Winfrey has no regrets about never becoming a mother. In fact, it was a conscious decision.
While the Queen of Talk -- who has been in a relationship with Stedman Graham since 1986 -- has never had children of her own, she tells the April issue of Good Housekeeping U.K. that she feels very maternal towards the women in her Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. "I have 172 girls, and 20 are in college in the United States and use my home as their home base. It is more rewarding than I would ever have imagined," she gushes. "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, because I feel like I am a mother to the world’s children."
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"Love knows no boundaries. It doesn’t matter if a child came from your womb or if you found that person at age two, 10 or 20," Winfrey continues. "If the love is real, the caring is pure and it comes from a good space, it works."
The 63-year-old star goes on to reveal why she doesn't think she'd be a good mother. "I didn’t want babies. I wouldn’t have been a good mom for babies," she admits. "I don’t have the patience. I have the patience for puppies, but that’s a quick stage!"
Winfrey also opens up to the magazine about her lifelong struggle with food and her recent 42-pound weight loss. "[My weight] has been the go-to comfort for me. You use it as your coat and your shield, and it keeps you from doing things," she explains. "You don’t have to go to that party because you don’t have a dress to wear and nothing is going to fit you."
Winfrey says after teaming up with Weight Watchers over a year ago, that all changed for her. "The wonderful thing for me is that I reached a point where I no longer wanted to hide," she shares. "I know that sounds strange for somebody who is in the public eye, but it was my shield and my shame."
"Now I feel liberated! It’s the thing I have been looking for my whole life," Winfrey exclaims. "To feel a sense of freedom. The taste of freedom? There is nothing better than that!"
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