Kicking off her long awaited arena tour in Melbourne last night, the 61-year-old spoke out, revealing for the first time the name she chose for the premature baby boy she gave birth to and subsequently lost at age 14.
“I did an interview with a reporter before I came to Australia and she said you should name the baby son who died,” Oprah reportedly told an audience of 15,000 people at Rod Laver Arena.
“So I have named him, I had a little boy named Canaan,” she continued. “I did have a son. And I named him Canaan because Canaan means new land, new life.”
The 61-year-old poured her heart out during the intimate 2 hour show.
Oprah was just a 14-year-old girl when she became pregnant as a result of suffering sexual abuse during her childhood.
The media mogul recalled giving birth to her son in the late 1960s. Sadly the baby passed away in the hospital weeks later.
During her show, Oprah candidly spoke of that time in her life.
“I was raped at nine-years-old by a cousin, then again by another family member, and another family member,”
The TV star broke down the barriers and smashed taboos when she explained that she endured significant “pain and shame” from being a pregnant teen.
The news of Oprah’s son first surfaced back in 1990, when a relative unexpectedly told the story to the public.
“I took to my bed and cried for three days. I felt devastated. Wounded. Betrayed. How could this person do this to me?” the talk show host previously wrote of the ordeal.
“I soon realized that having the secret out was liberating,” she wrote in the February 2007 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine.
“What I learned for sure was that holding the shame was the greatest burden of all.”
Oprah Winfrey is in Australia for her five city arena tour in Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth.
