Oprah Winfrey and Stedman Graham, 35 years of love: «Our secret? We didn’t get married “

Oprah Winfrey and Stedman Graham, a love that has lasted for 35 years
Oprah Winfrey and Stedman Graham, a love that has lasted for 35 years
Oprah Winfrey and Stedman Graham, a love that has lasted for 35 years
Oprah Winfrey and Stedman Graham, a love that has lasted for 35 years
Oprah Winfrey and Stedman Graham, a love that has lasted for 35 years
Oprah Winfrey and Stedman Graham, a love that has lasted for 35 years
Oprah Winfrey and Stedman Graham, a love that has lasted for 35 years

Of Oprah Winfrey these days we speak mostly for the shock interview with Harry of England and Meghan Markle. But Oprah, in addition to being one of the most famous and powerful women in America, also boasts a much more intimate record: she and her partner. Stedman Graham, linked for almost thirty-five years without ever saying “yes”, I am in the list of longest-lived unmarried VIP couples. Her partner, soulmate, Oprah met her in 1986 – the same year The Oprah Winfrey Show was launched at a charity event. But it was not love at first sight. He was an athlete at the time, modeled for a sportswear label and had a girlfriend. “I wasn’t very impressed. Yes, he was polite and kind. He is also tall and handsome. Too good, I thought, to care about meOprah said in a 2020 article on The Magazine. But Stedman soon became single again and stepped forward with the host. It was then that love blossomed.

Since then, the queen of American TV and the businessman, who announced their engagement in 1992, have been a close-knit couple without ever having felt the need to swear “forever”. Indeed, if they had married, perhaps today they would not be together: “Marriage requires a different way of being, which I would not have been able to adapt toShe explained. The partner today thinks the same way: «We do not base our entire identity on our relationship. We are two individuals, each with their own passions, each with their own life. I support her in her life, she supports me in mine. “

But there was a moment, in 1992, when he – behind a marriage that lasted just two years from which a daughter was born in 1985 – had thought about the wedding. Oprah was in the kitchen when Graham told her, “I want you to marry me. I think it’s time “. She replied enthusiastically: “Is fantastic”. But the joy of the first moments, as the presenter explained in 2020, did not last long: “I quickly realized that I didn’t want to get married. That I wanted our relationship to stay the way it was. The wedding proposal had pleased me, but I was not prepared to accept the sacrifices, the compromises, the commitment required to make a marriage work. My life in show business was my priority. And we both knew it. ‘ Things work out between them, explained Winfrey, precisely because they never married: “Stedman has his own identity, in addition to being Oprah’s man. And we are both happy to see the other fulfill and manifest his own destiny. I would define our relationship as a “spiritual partnership” ». Anyone who meets Graham, Oprah added, “is amazed, because he’s a real one gentleman. He wants the best for me and everyone he knows. It has a fitting name because it is stable like a mountain. Patient, moderate, reliable».

No children were born from their union. Oprah never wanted them. And as he explained to People in 2019, no, no inclination: “At some point in Chicago I had bought a larger apartment because I thought, “Well, if we get married, we’ll need to space for children”». Then it didn’t happen. And in all the years she has been the mistress of the The Oprah Winfrey Show the presenter has developed a new awareness: «I saw the depth of the responsibility he was born in sacrifice which is actually required of a mother». Episode after episode, he understood that who you are today always depends on what children you were and how you grew up: “I talked to many messed up people and I discovered that they were because they had had mothers and fathers who were unaware of how serious the job was», She added,« And I’ve never had the ability to compartmentalize private life and work, as other women do. That’s why I’ve always had the utmost respect for women who choose to stay at home with their children. Nobody gives to women the credit they deserve».

Years earlier, in 2013, Oprah had admitted: “I have no patience, I would not have been a good mother. If I had children, they would hate me… ». Motherhood for her is linked to a painful episode: abused multiple times by a cousin when she was little more than a child, became pregnant at 14, but gave birth to a stillborn son. She hasn’t had any more pregnancies since then. For years, however, he has been taking care of the 172 girls in his boarding school, the Leadership Academy which is based in Johannesburg, South Africa: “Love knows no boundaries, even if a baby does not come from your womb».

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