Here's Why Mary J. Blige And Some Other Famous Women Haven't Had Kids

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Oprah Winfrey

Although Oprah Winfrey birthed a son when she was 14 due to sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of a family member, the child passed away around two weeks after his delivery.

After growing into one of the most successful and influential women in the world, Winfrey said in a 2013 interview with The Hollywood Reporter: “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 [in my life] would have had to suffer and it would’ve probably been them.”

In a more recent interview with PEOPLE in 2019, the veteran reporter said that the possibility of having children ran across her mind after she and her longtime love Stedman Graham got engaged in 1986. 

While the couple ultimately chose to not get married or have children, Winfrey said, “…I also believe that part of the reason why I don’t have regrets is because I got [fufillment] in the way that was best for me: the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa.” 

“Those girls fill that maternal fold that I perhaps would have had. In fact, they overfill — I’m overflowed with maternal,” she added.