Oprah Winfrey says 'life starts at 44,' so there might be hope for millennials after all

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Oprah Winfrey attends the Forbes Self-Made 250 Celebration at the Museum of the American Revolution on June 17, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Rejoice, millennials: According to Oprah, life really begins at 44.

The 72-year-old media mogul appeared on the July 21 episode of Keke Palmer's podcast, "Baby, This Is Keke Palmer," and said there's no way she'd want to go back to being 30. But she'd happily be 44 again.

"I think life starts at 44, because you come into yourself in a way that you're no longer trying to please everybody else. You come into yourself," Winfrey said.

For Winfrey, getting older 'looks like freedom'

When Palmer asked Winfrey what living her best life looks like, she replied: "It looks like freedom."

She described reaching a point where she could make choices based on what she really wanted, rather than what she had to do for her career or other people.

"I think when you're not free, not completely free, you can't make decisions based upon what you want," she said. "It was 44 where I locked in. I wasn't just doing things for other people. I really was in full drive, purposeful living for myself. Forty-four is when it locked in."

Oprah Winfrey attends the premiere of "Beloved" on October 12, 1998 at Mann Bruin Theater in Westwood, California.

Winfrey said work-life balance has to be earned

Winfrey said many of the young women she mentors are graduating from college and getting their first jobs, and they are concerned with finding a work-life balance.

But Winfrey doesn't think that exists for people early in their careers.

"You ain't gonna have no work-life balance at 22, 23," she said. "It's not there, you're not supposed to have it."

Winfrey said the work she put in earlier in her career eventually led her to find that balance.

"I believe that, for me, it's getting to this point in my life where my choices are based truly from the purest part of myself. I only do what I want to do, and I've earned the right to do that, because there were lots of times I had to do what I had to do, until you can do what you want to do," she said.

Betting on herself was a huge part of Winfrey's success

Another part of her successful trajectory that she's tried to impart on her mentees? Believing in themselves.

Winfrey cited "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and its star for inspiring her to "own herself," since Moore had her own production company and was a producer of the show.

When Winfrey started "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in the 1980s, she told one of the "suits" that her dream was to be a mogul. According to Winfrey, he called her "arrogant."

Oprah Winfrey speaks during the Forbes Self-Made 250 Celebration at the Museum of the American Revolution on June 17, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

However, when the time came to renew her contract, and the show was syndicated, Winfrey bet on herself. She chose to become a producer and told Palmer she gave up a traditional salary, instead negotiating 50% of the show's revenue.

"Owning that show was the transition to me owning myself in so many ways," she said. "I believed in myself. And that is the reason that I am what I am."