Oprah Winfrey: The presidency would kill me

3 July 2018

Oprah Winfrey thinks that running to be President of the United States in 2020 would "kill her".

Oprah Winfrey

The talk show host gave a rousing speech at the Golden Globe Awards show in January and her long-term partner Stedman Graham suggested that she may be interested in making a run for the White House.

But the 64-year-old actress thinks that the "bulls**t" involved with politics in America would take a toll on her health and happiness so she's not interested.

In an interview with Vogue magazine, she said: "In that political structure - all the non-truths, the bullshit, the crap, the nastiness, the backhanded backroom stuff that goes on - I feel like I could not exist,"

"I would not be able to do it. It's not a clean business. It would kill me."

The idea of Oprah for president was born at the Golden Globes when host Seth Meyers recalled gags he made about Donald Trump being "unqualified" to be the American leader at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner. Trump won the vote to become president in 2017, sparking much controversy.

Seth said in jest: "In 2011, I told some jokes about our current president at the White House Correspondents Dinner, jokes about how he was unqualified to be president. And some have said that night convinced him to run. And if that's true, I would just like to say Oprah you will never be president. You do not have what it takes."

Although she is trying to stay away from politics, Oprah has often voiced her overwhelming support for the #MeToo and Time's Up movements against sexual abuse, harassment and exploitation in Hollywood and she thinks we're living through a period of positive change.

She said: "People talk about 'these are such dark times,' but what if we shift the paradigm? Because I see it differently. I see, 'Isn't this remarkable that we're waking up?' For years, women have endured craziness. This is what's happening to people. They're allowing themselves to not just become corroded, but to become hysterical. You've got to lean to the happiness."