Popular media personality Oprah Winfrey has said that the late Barbara Walters played a major role in her decision not to have kids. Oprah recently shared that the complicated relationship Barbara had with her adopted daughter, Jacqueline, shaped how she viewed motherhood.
Recall that Barbara, who died in 2022 at the age of 93, adopted Jacqueline in 1968 with her then-husband, Lee Guber. However, their relationship was mostly strained, with Jacqueline once running away from home for a full month as a teenager.
Speaking in the upcoming Hulu documentary “Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything,” Winfrey revealed that despite Barbara personally encouraging her to have children years back, she looked at her own situation with her adopted daughter and decided against it.
Oprah said that Barbara’s relationship with Jacqueline was so complex that it became one of the reasons she made up her mind to remain childless.
According to her, balancing career and family was always going to be a challenge because your job and motherhood are 2 tasking paths that require a lot of sacrifice.
“When you’re a pioneer in your field and breaking molds for yourself and others, something has to give. I knew I couldn’t do both well. Both paths require sacrifice,” she said.
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The TV presenter concluded by saying that she simply had to choose between her career and kids, stressing that it was important for her to fully commit to one choice.
“That’s why I didn’t have children. I didn’t want to half-do either. Barbara never let anyone else take the big stories. She was relentless,” she said.
