The topic of life was a timely conversation for Oprah Winfrey, who celebrated her 70th birthday in January.
In a special talk with Al Roker–who celebrated his 70th birthday on Tuesday (August 20)–for the TODAY Show, the host and media entrepreneur shared that she once had a nihilistic perspective, believing that she wouldn’t make it to 60 years old.
"I was excited to make the number. I’m excited to make every number," Winfrey told Roker about aging as the two sat down for a surf ’n’ turf meal. "I remember many, many years ago, as a young girl, I always thought I would never make it to the 60s or 70s. I had this number in my head that I thought, ‘Okay, I’m going to be out by then.’”
"I don't know why," she continued. "I think I had a vision of it when I was a kid, and I think it is because, under the circumstances that I was living [in] when I was a little girl in Milwaukee on welfare with my mother. What I now know is if I had stayed in those circumstances, I probably wouldn’t be here, healthy and strong and vibrant."
Winfrey was born in Mississippi and remembers having an unstable and impoverished family upbringing. She moved to Wisconsin and Tennessee at different stages of her adolescence. Winfrey was also the victim of sexual abuse as a child, and at 14 years old, she became pregnant, ultimately losing her son due to a premature birth.
But with time, Winfrey gained wisdom about her life experiences, so when asked by Roker if she has a deeper “concept of gratitude” at 70, her answer was profound.
"I would not say that it’s deeper Al, because I’ve been doing it for so long. I would say that there’s a sense of knowing that there isn’t as much time life and I am at peace with that knowing,” she said.
Rather, Winfrey’s urgency is about “living well” and “health,” as she’s also been on a decades-long journey to embracing her weight and body image.