Disney(LONDON) — Earlier this year, Oprah Winfrey shot down rumors that she was considering a presidential bid, and now she’s explaining why.
The actress and former talk show host, whose stirring speech at the Golden Globes in January led many to wonder if she’d consider a career in politics, said in a new interview with Vogue U.K. that her personality would make that path impossible.
Running for president, she stated plainly, “would kill me.”
“In that political structure –- all the non-truths, the bulls**t, the crap, the nastiness, the backhanded backroom stuff that goes on –- I feel like I could not exist,” Winfrey told the magazine. “I would not be able to do it. It’s not a clean business.”
But that doesn’t mean she’s not going to continue to speak her mind. Winfrey, 64, has long been an advocate for women’s rights and spoke passionately at the Golden Globes about those who’ve battled for equality and looked ahead to a time “when nobody ever has to say ‘me too’ again.”
In her interview with Vogue U.K., she reiterated that she sees the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements as beacons of hope for future generations.
“People talk about ‘these are such dark times’, but what if we shift the paradigm? Because I see it differently,” she said. “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.”
Speaking of happiness, Winfrey attended the Royal Wedding in May, and she tells Vogue what she learned from the experience.
“It left me feeling that anything is possible through the power of love.”
The Vogue U.K. issue is on stands August 6.
Copyright © 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.