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Al Roker just turned 70 years old, and Oprah Winfrey turned 70 back in January. Oprah tends to have huge realizations around her biggest birthdays, and we have to go through it all with her. I still remember how mad she was when she turned 50 (she hated that birthday). Well, Al Roker is more easy-going but even had to pause for his 70th. He asked Oprah if she would do an interview for the Today Show on aging and the wisdom that comes with age. The interview was actually really good! She really opens up to people she’s known for years.
What she felt on her 70th birthday: “There is a sense of knowing that there isn’t as much time left and I am at peace with that knowing. There’s a sense of urgency for me about living well.”
Her 2021 knee surgery: “I had been becoming more and more debilitated to the point where it was hard to walk down even two steps just to get into the car. You know that pain. When I finally went to the knee doctor and I said, ‘I don’t know, is it time?’ He goes, ‘It’s time if you want to continue walking. You like walking? It’s time.’ I’d never been through surgery, was intimidated by it. The best thing I’ve ever done. I really felt like I’ve had a new opportunity to live inside my body in a way that I hadn’t been able to for years because being overweight, and being overweight causing the knees to be even worse.”
Whether her edges have softened over time: “I think I have just aged into a form of myself that is wiser, that is certainly stronger, that is more vibrant and aware and conscious than I’ve ever been. I don’t feel that my edges are softening.”
Her biggest regret: “I would not have taken on the responsibility of trying to build a network [OWN] while still ending the show. That is my one regret. I should have handled all of that differently, I think. I should have completed one thing, taken a year to do nothing, and then decided what was the next thing for me to do. I’d made a decision that it was time for the show to end, I don’t regret that. What I do regret is trying to do multiple things at the same time. I would have done the thing that I tell everybody else to do: ‘When you don’t know what to do, do nothing. Get still with yourself and do nothing.’ I would have given myself that time.”
She loves rainy days: “If it’s a rainy day, I’m in love with life. You know why? No expectations. Nobody expects you to go out on a rainy day. If it’s bright sun everybody’s like, ‘Come on, let’s do that that that.’ I love myself a rainy day. Rainy day, a fireplace, a blanket, and a dog at your foot and a great book? That’s it. That’s it for me.”
In recent weeks, I feel like the universe is trying to tell me to get my bad knee looked at by a doctor instead of just ignoring it and saying “that’s my bad knee.” As for Oprah’s sense of peace and urgency with her 70th birthday… I hope she genuinely feels some sense of peace, but I doubt it. I think she’s still got a long list of sh-t she wants to do and it probably drives her a little bit crazy to think that she won’t have time to get to it. But maybe that’s a great way to live too, always yearning and striving and doing. And yeah, she probably should have held off on launching OWN for a few years. I remember the chaos of that launch too.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
NEW YORK, NY- DECEMBER 6: Oprah Winfrey at The Color Purple World Premiere at The Academy Museum in Los Angeles, California on December 6, 2023. Copyright: xJeffreyxMayerx,Image: 827489709, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no, Credit line: IMAGO/Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon
NEW YORK, NY- DECEMBER 6: Oprah Winfrey at The Color Purple World Premiere at The Academy Museum in Los Angeles, California on December 6, 2023. Copyright: xJeffreyxMayerx,Image: 827489728, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no, Credit line: IMAGO/Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon
BEVERLY HILLS, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – JANUARY 07: Oprah Winfrey wearing a Louis Vuitton dress, Manolo Blahnik shoes, and Chopard jewels arrives at the 81st Annual Golden Globe Awards held at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 7, 2024 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 835216221, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Oprah Winfrey, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon
BEVERLY HILLS, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – JANUARY 07: Oprah Winfrey wearing a Louis Vuitton dress, Manolo Blahnik shoes, and Chopard jewels arrives at the 81st Annual Golden Globe Awards held at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 7, 2024 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 835216318, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Oprah Winfrey, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon
Celebrities at ‘The Color Purple’ World Premiere at The Academy Museum in Los Angeles, California
Featuring: Oprah Winfrey
Where: Los Angeles, California, United States
When: 06 Dec 2023
Credit: Jeffrey Mayer/JTM Photos/Media Punch/INSTARimages
