When TV icon Oprah Winfrey was 14-years old, she gave birth to a baby boy. Her son died a few weeks later, but the talk show host revealed that she still named her baby.
Oprah revealed the details about her son during her recent speaking engagement in Melbourne, Australia, in front of 15,000 people. She recalled the last time she was in the country, according to News.Com.Au. "I did an interview with a reporter before I came to Australia and she said you should name the baby son who died," Oprah revealed. "So I have named him, I had a little boy named Canaan." The name means "new land, new hope," according to the TV star.
Oprah also opened up about being sexually abused when she was still a child. "I was raped at nine years old by a cousin, then again by another family member, and another family member," she confessed. The star didn't make this detail public for years, especially when her popularity was beginning to peak as she was concerned it would ruin her career.
She kept her pregnancy as a result of the shame and pain she felt. However, she later learned to use this traumatic experience to uplift her life and do better at it. This is what Oprah wants to impart to her audience, per Daily Mail. "I'm here to help you turn up the volume in your life," said the media mogul and now inspirational speaker.
Oprah also talked about her beginnings as a news reporter before landing the career of the lifetime that made her one of the most powerful and richest women in Hollywood. With all the blessings she has received despite a bad childhood, Oprah has been giving back to society with her charities and the South African girls' school she established. She said the secret to her success is "trusting her gut."
"The point of the journey we're all on is "how do you become more of yourself? Nobody can touch you because you are as authentically you as you can be," she imparted to her audience.
Meanwhile, Oprah is set to publish her latest memoir borne out of her speaking engagements, according to Time. The book will be entitled "The Life You Want," which will be published by Flatiron Books by January 2017. "All of my experiences, even the painful ones, have been there to teach me something about life. I'm still learning and I hope my story inspires other people to live the highest, fullest expression of themselves," the Queen of TV Talk said in the press release.
