I think that most of us probably have a secret that we hide in our past. These are secrets that can impact us if they come to light, so we often try to keep them as quiet as possible.
Even Oprah Winfrey has secrets from her past, but hers are very complicated. They remained a secret for quite some time until her half-sister decided to reveal that secret to the world. It was an act of betrayal.
Oprah Winfrey is known for not having any children and she has made herself a billionaire over the years. There are a number of females who work alongside her that she considers to be her daughters, but they are not blood relations.
What came to light is the fact that, despite not having children as far as anyone knows, she actually has a secret in her past that was well hidden. It was a secret that started when she was 14 years old.
When Oprah Winfrey was 14, she got pregnant and she kept the pregnancy hidden from her family for seven months. In speaking about the child, she said: “I saved that baby because I was so disassociated and still do feel such a disassociation. I never felt like it was my baby.”
She said that she felt ashamed because she had the pregnancy but she continued to hide it until it was evident that she was pregnant.
She also said: “Hiding that secret and carrying that shame blocked me in so many ways that I remember being taken to the detention home when my mother was going to put me out of the house at the age of 14.”
Overall, she said that it was a very emotional, traumatic, and confusing time in her young life. She said that waiting to be processed at the detention home had her thinking about her past abuse from the time she was nine years old.
She went on to say that she had been sexually abused when she was nine and 10 years old and had been molested during those years. That is what resulted in the pregnancy.
As she looked around the detention home at the other girls who had been put there for similar reasons, she now thought that she was officially a bad girl. She said that she would carry that stigma for the rest of her life because she was now in that place.
Despite the fact that she was there, she said that she didn’t feel like a bad girl. Fortunately, there was a woman that came out and told her and her mother that there was no room for her and they would have to come back in two weeks.
She left the home with her mother and then went to go live with her father, which she said was of real benefit. She then felt as if she had a second chance in life, and wanted to take advantage of it.
The baby died at the hospital and she said that her father gave her a sense of hope after it happened. He told her it was her second chance, an opportunity to stop that moment and make something of her life.
After hearing those words, she really took it to heart and said that she knew she could do better for herself. She tried to keep the secret hidden, but it was revealed through no fault of her own.
After learning that her half-sister had been paid by the publication for the story, she was deeply disturbed. She described her half-sister as a drug dependent, deeply disturbed individual.
She was also concerned that she would be expelled from school, and worried that it would hurt her career.
When the story became available publicly, she went to bed and cried for three days. Her boyfriend, Stedman Graham, came into the bedroom and handed her a tabloid, telling her he was sorry and that she didn’t deserve it.
Her initial fears were unfounded, as not even strangers or people she knew were stunned by what had happened. Nobody treated her differently and she had feared a reaction for two decades that never came.
Suddenly, she realized that she had been holding onto that shame for a very long time. Having the secret out was liberating.
Oprah has lived a very good life but like all people, she has had her ups and downs. We are thankful that she was able to overcome this problem and to be better as a result of it.