Friday, January 21, 2011

Oprah Winfrey: I contemplated suicide

Oprah Winfrey has revealed she considered killing herself when she got pregnant as a teenager.

The talk show host confessed she even drank detergent in a bid to harm herself or the baby as she tried to hide the pregnancy from her family. Oprah was 14 when she discovered she was expecting but later lost the baby. She feels the death was a "second chance" for her as she believes her father would have disowned her if he had found out.

"Getting pregnant was a result of bad choices, not having boundaries, sexual abuse from the time I was nine, ten, 11, 12 and 13," Oprah said in an interview with Piers Morgan for CNN. "I had no connection to that baby. I felt nothing but relief because I felt before that baby was born I was going to have to kill myself.

"I did silly things like drinking detergent, but really I was crying for help."

During the interview Oprah, 56, teased Piers and insisted she wouldn't be reduced to tears. However, near the end of the show she did well up as she spoke about the late civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King. Oprah became emotional when she discussed him, saying he inspired her to become the person she is today.

"Now you are going to make me weep, I could weep over that," she smiled as her eyes glistened. "I would because I hold him in reverence. And I know that I would not be here... this life... the dream that I live in, would not be possible if he hadn't had been who he was."

Oprah also went on to speak about her 25-year relationship with Stedman Graham. The media mogul insists she is more in love with him than ever but she has no plans to tie the knot anytime soon.

"I am not the marrying kind," she explained. "I am a different kind of woman in that I am pretty assured that had I married I wouldn't have remained married because it takes a very different person to put up with all this [her life in the spotlight]."

Oprah didn't answer all of Piers' questions. When quizzed on reports she is worth $2.7 billion, Oprah simply laughed and replied, "You're good."

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