Oprah has been vocal over the course of her career about her sexual abuse at the hands of family members. But she has never had much to say about the child she gave birth to at age 14 and lost shortly thereafter—until now.
While in Melbourne, Australia on tour for her one-woman show, the media mogul addressed a 15,000 person crowd with the story of the loss at such a young age, the New York Daily News reports.
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“I was raped at nine years old by a cousin,” she shared. “Then again by another family member, and another family member.”
Winfrey revealed that during her pregnancy, she was full of such “pain and shame” that upon giving birth, she didn’t give her infant son a name.
“I did an interview with a reporter before I came to Australia and she said ‘you should name the baby son who died,'” she said. “So I have named him, I had a little boy named Canaan.”
The name, which is found in the Bible, Winfrey chose because it “means new land, new life.”