Oprah Winfrey reveals the one ‘bad mistake’ she wishes she never made

Oprah Winfrey has become a multi-billionaire thanks to her media empire, so it’s surprising to learn that she does have one major regret about her career.

The 72-year-old admitted that her brief foray into music was a “mistake” after she recorded her one and only single, 1998’s “Run On,” which was also the theme song for season 13 of The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Appearing in a BTS clip for the Baby, This is Keke Palmer podcast, Oprah visibly cringed when Keke started singing the uplifting spiritual song.

“Girl, please,” Oprah said. “Ok, that is one of the mistakes of my career.”

When Keke insisted: “It’s no mistake. We love it.” Oprah didn’t back down, responding: “It is a mistake.”

Explaining how her reimagined version of the track came to be, Oprah said: “I was trying to decide, am I going to end the show or not end the show? 

“And then I had a little talk with Jesus, and Jesus said, ‘You gotta keep going.’ And so I said, ‘You know, there’s this song. It’s an old spiritual.” 

Oprah recorded an accompanying music video that featured a church choir. “And so then we thought, we could do it…We could do the whole church choir… Sometimes backup vocals will do that. Sometimes. Oh, yeah. Didn’t work this time,” she stated.

The problem with the song, Oprah realized, was her. “I can’t sing,” she admitted. “Even though I took the singing lessons.”

Despite Keke’s insistence that the track wasn’t as bad as Oprah made out, the media mogul held firm: “It was bad,” she replied.

“You know it was bad. You’re just saying that because you’re looking at me right now,” she added. “It was bad. It was pretty bad.”

The powers that be must have agreed with Oprah, as the track served only as the theme song for her show for one season during its 25-year run.

Oprah’s real Biblical name

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Her career “mistake” wasn’t the only revelation Oprah shared during her appearance on the podcast – she also revealed that she wasn’t actually born ‘Oprah.’

She confessed that the name the world has known her by for decades isn’t the one on her birth certificate.

“It was Orpah from the Bible,” Oprah told a speechless Keke, explaining that her aunt chose the name from the Book of Ruth.

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“Ruth, first chapter, 14th verse. It’s that whole Ruth and Naomi story,” she said. “And you know, Ruth said, ‘Wherever thy goest, I will go.’ And then Orpah said, ‘I’m going back. I’m sorry. I can’t. Too long. The road’s too long.'”

Curious about how Orpah became Oprah, Keke asked why she decided to change it.

“I was a kid,” Oprah replied with a laugh. “Nobody knew how to spell it.”

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She went on to explain that the mix-up wasn’t intentional. “So, it turned out on my birth certificate, it’s Orpah,” she said. 

“And then people started calling me Oprah. And so it’s just the difference between the P being before the R or after the R. So once they started with Oprah, that’s it.”

Oprah admitted that she didn’t realize her birth certificate listed a different name until she was around 20 years old.