Oprah’s Reason for Not Having Kids Is a Breath of Fresh Air

While Oprah Winfrey is busy having the most fulfilling professional life in history, people are still asking her why she didn’t have children. (Come on, guys, give it a rest.)

But because the A Wrinkle in Time star has more patience than we do, she settled the matter once and for all (politely, we might add) in a recent interview. 

Winfrey spoked candidly with Good Housekeeping U.K. about her decision to not start a family, saying, “I didn’t want babies. I wouldn’t have been a good mom for babies. I don’t have the patience. I have the patience for puppies, but that’s a quick stage!”

The host and actress did give birth to a son after being sexually abused at 14, but he died in the hospital several weeks later. Instead of seeking motherhood on her own terms, Winfrey opted to found the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in 2007 and is now a mother to the 172 girls who currently attend the school.

“It is more rewarding than I would ever have imagined,” Winfrey said of the boarding school. “I was doing this to help them, but it has brought a light to my life that I can’t explain. When people were pressuring me to get married and have children, I knew I was not going to be a person that ever regretted not having them, because I feel like I am a mother to the world’s children. Love knows no boundaries. It doesn’t matter if a child came from your womb or if you found that person at age 2, 10 or 20. If the love is real, the caring is pure and it comes from a good space, it works.”

Mic. Drop.