Oprah Winfrey Reveals She Didn’t Expect To Live Past 56

photo credit: Leon Bennett / Getty Images 

In a recent interview, mogul Oprah Winfrey revealed that she didn’t think she’d live past the age of 56. It all stemmed from a dream she had. 

 

“I used to have this dream that I was going to be dead at 56, so the year that I turned 56 I was filled with dread,” she told People magazine. “I had only told one other person that I had a number in my head when I was going to die, and that was Gayle [King, her best friend].”

 

“Gayle said, ‘What’s the number?’ I said, ‘I’m not going to tell you, because you will drive me crazy and then I will end up dead.’”

 

Oprah celebrated her 65thbirthday earlier this year. 

 

“When I got to 57, it was like, ‘Why did all my life I think it was going to be 56?’ At the time I started having this vision of 56, it was when I was in Milwaukee and I was trapped in a world where I could see how dire it was.”

 

Thankfully, Oprah is around to tell her story and inspire others, “When I was in Milwaukee, I was trapped in a world where I could see how dire it was,” she says. “Had I not gotten out of Milwaukee, nothing would have been the same. I do believe I would have been dead at 56. I believe I would have been 437 lbs. I believe I would have had diabetes. I would have had high blood pressure. I would have suffocated knowing that things could have been different.”