Barbara Walters’ Role In Oprah Winfrey’s Child-Free Life Revealed

Oprah Winfrey is 71, and despite having been in a relationship for nearly four decades, the television personality still has no children.

Recently, the truth behind her decision to abstain from motherhood came to light, and it turns out Barbara Walters had a role to play. In the forthcoming documentary “Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything,” Winfrey shares how Walters served as a cautionary example.

Despite the late journalist’s encouragement to experience parenthood, Oprah says she looked closely at Walters’ complex relationship with her adopted daughter and decided that motherhood wasn’t for her.

In the documentary, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on Thursday, Winfrey recalled how Barbara Walters once urged her to consider motherhood.

“I remember her telling me once that there’s nothing more fulfilling than having children, and ‘You should really think about it,'” Winfrey said per the Daily Beast.

However, the television producer couldn’t get past what she saw in Walters’ life, years of heartache and emotional strain with her adopted daughter, Jackie. “And I was like, ‘OK, but I’m looking at you, so, no,'” the 71-year-old said.

Winfrey further described Walters and Jackie’s relationship as “charged” and “complex,” adding, “And I can see why. It’s one of the reasons why I never had children.”

Winfrey also noted that Walters’ ambition frequently clashed with her role as a mother, leaving wounds that never fully healed.

“You are a pioneer in your field, and you are trying to break the mold, for yourself and for the women who are going to follow you. Something’s going to have to give for that,” she said in the documentary.

Seeing how Walters struggled to balance both duties, Winfrey made a conscious decision to follow a different path.

“And that is why I did not have children. I knew I could not do both well. Both are sacrifices. Sacrifice to do the work and it’s also [a] sacrifice to be the mother and to say, ‘No, let somebody else have that,'” Winfrey said.

The TV host revealed that at no point did Walters ever consider giving up her career to focus on parenting. “At no time have I ever heard a story, read a story, and based on what I know of Barbara Walters – at no time has Barbara Walters ever said, ‘No let someone else take that story,'” Winfrey said.

Barbara Walters may have loved Jackie and wanted her to be as career-driven as she was. However, the “20/20” star said she didn’t know it was very difficult for her daughter.

“I didn’t realize how tough it was because she had a mother who was a celebrity,” Walters said through voiceover in the film.

“We struggled through schools. And then finally, at one point, when she was 16, I guess she ran away,” she said. Walters confirmed that Jackie ran across the country, hitchhiking with guys she didn’t know.

On one occasion, the mom of one sent a former Green Beret to collect her daughter after she found out she was in New Mexico.

Jackie also confirmed that having a celebrity mom was taxing. When Walters’ longtime friend Cynthia McFadden interviewed Jackie for her mom’s 2001 special on adoption, “Born in My Heart: A Love Story,” she said “being a child of a famous woman” was more difficult than being adopted.

Despite all her accomplishments as one of the biggest names in TV history, Walters wished she had spent more time with Jackie.

“On your deathbed, are you going to say, ‘I wish I spent more time in the office?’ No. You’ll say, ‘I wish I spent more time with my family,’ and I do feel that way. I wish I had spent more time with my Jackie,” she said in her 2014 special “Barbara Walters: Her Story TV.”

In fact, Walters tried to mend her relationship with Jackie. Initially, their bond improved as Jackie grew into adulthood, but things eventually reverted to how they used to be.