She’s forged a career as an incredible successful media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist.
And Oprah Winfrey, 63, says she has no regrets over not having children with her partner of thirty years Stedman Graham, because she doesn’t have the ‘patience’.
The star famously founded the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, a boarding school in South Africa which opened in 2007 and houses 172 girls.
She told Good Housekeeping magazine that the project makes her feel as though she has children of her own.
She said: ‘It is more rewarding than I would ever have imagined. I was doing this to help them, but it has brought a light to my life that I can’t explain…
‘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.
Oprah has previously spoken about a premature baby she lost when she was just aged 14, who she named Canaan.
She continued: ‘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. If the love is real, the caring is pure and it comes from a good space, it works.’
She continued: ‘For me it was perfect, because I didn’t want babies. I wouldn’t have been a good mom for babies. I don’t have the patience. I have the patience for puppies, but that’s a quick stage! But this is so rewarding.’
Oprah also revealed that she’s finally found a sense of freedom having lost over three stone in weight… and kept it off.
She said: ‘[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.
‘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.
‘But the wonderful thing for me is that I reached a point where I no longer wanted to hide.
‘I know that sounds strange for somebody who is in the public eye, but it was my shield and my shame.’
Oprah sense she’s enjoyed a journey of self-discovery since overcoming her food demons.
She told the publication: ‘Now I feel liberated! It’s the thing I have been looking for my whole life. To feel a sense of freedom. The taste of freedom? There is nothing better than that!’