Oprah talks about finally marrying Stedman Graham
After dating for more than 25 years, Oprah is finally talking about marrying boyfriend Stedman Graham. Unfortunately for fans dreaming of a big O wedding, her comments don’t inspire much optimism.
“I thought about it again at Tina Turner’s wedding,” Oprah told Access Hollywood of possibly marrying Stedman. “Because Tina was like, ‘Oprah, you need to do this. You need to do it.’ I was just thinking, ‘Well, OK, would things really be different?’ And no, I don’t think so.”
Oprah said those thoughts eventually passed and she’s freshly committed to leaving the world as “never-married” woman.
“Yeah, I think that’s my final answer,” the media mogul said.
Even though marriage was never right for them, Oprah previously revealed she and Stedman came close to tying the knot.
“Actually, Stedman asked me to marry him, and at first I said ‘Yes!’ but it turned out that I wanted to be asked to be married more than I wanted to be married,” Oprah said for the May 2010 edition of O Magazine. “Had it not been for big-mouth Gayle King over there, it wouldn’t have become the big public thing that it became. Gayle was there when he asked me, and then she went on TV—she was anchoring the news back then—and told everybody. And it became this big hoo-da-ha-da thing.”
In spite of Gayle’s comments, Oprah and Stedman settled on a wedding date and began working toward it — although Oprah was admittedly reluctant.
“Gayle says, ‘Oh, everybody gets cold feet.’ And I say, ‘I don’t have cold feet—my feet are stuck in a cement block surrounded by ice,'” Oprah joked of an unusual discussion at her engagement party.
^Oprah and Stedman in 1998..
Oprah and Stedman eventually talked about it and decided to cancel the wedding. Considering that was 20 years ago and she’s still with Stedman, Oprah said she doesn’t have a single regret about opting out of marriage.
“If you ever interviewed him, he would tell you that had we married, we would not be together today,” Oprah told Access Hollywood of Stedman. “Because he’s a traditional man and this is a very untraditional relationship… I think it’s acceptable as a relationship, but if I had the title ‘wife,’ I think there would be other expectations for what a wife is and what a wife does.”
