Barbara Walters’ Experience As Mother Kept Oprah From Having Kids
Oprah Winfrey is a famous media personality and proprietor. However, she’s still taken influence from other such prominent figures in the media, including other talk show hosts. Recently, Winfrey has opened up about how one such figure influenced her to make a major life decision.
Oprah Winfrey Recently Appeared At The Tribeca Festival, Sharing Advice Another Media Personality Gave Her
For many fans, Winfrey is arguably best known for her namesake talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, which ran from 1986 to 2011. The same year this series ended, Winfrey launched her own network, OWN, also known as the Oprah Winfrey Network.
Winfrey, who suffered from sexual abuse as a young girl, became pregnant as a teenager. Her son was born prematurely and died in infancy a few weeks later. In her personal life, Winfrey is later became known for her long-standing relationship with Stedman Graham, starting in the mid-1980s.
Winfrey recently spoke about how another prominent figure in the media, the late Barbara Walters, influenced an important decision in her life: to not have children.
While appearing at the Tribeca Festival, as noted by Page Six, Winfrey shared that Walters once told her, “I remember her telling me once, ‘There’s nothing more fulfilling than having children,’ and ‘You should really think about it.’”
However, Winfrey didn’t agree with the sentiment, claiming, “And I was like, ‘OK, but I’m looking at you, so, no.’” In particular, she took issue with Walters’ own relationship with her adopted daughter, Jacqueline Dena Guber. Winfrey then shared, “And I can see why. It’s one of the reasons why I never had children.”
Barbara Walters Was Also The Subject Of A Documentary Released At The Festival
The festival saw the debut of a documentary: Barbara Walters Tell Me Everything. Walters’ relationship with Jacqueline, whom she adopted with her ex-husband Lee Guber in 1968, was explored in the piece.
Through the documentary, Walters shared that she felt “guilty” as her career often took precedence over her relationship with her daughter. In a voiceover, Walters shared, “I didn’t realize how tough it was, because she had a mother who was a celebrity. We struggled through schools. And then finally, at one point, when she was 16, I guess, she ran away.”
Cynthia McFadden, Walter’s ABC colleague and friend, also talked about the late media figure’s relationship with her daughter. As she shared, “Jackie had a father [and a governess]… so it wasn’t that Jackie was left alone on a playpen.” However, she continued, “Barbara articulated many times that she’d made mistakes as a mother.”
“As she got older, I think Barbara felt that the relationship was shaky. She didn’t tell me enough of the facts to make me understand why she felt that way, but it seemed to me that she felt that she and Jackie had fallen out again.”
For her part, Winfrey also talked about her late son while appearing at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia, back in 2015. As noted by People, she revealed, “I had a little boy named Canaan. I did have a son. And I named him Canaan because Canaan means new land, new life.” At the time, Winfrey didn’t specify the spelling of her son’s name.
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