Oprah Winfrey will not run for US Presidency:'It's not something that interests me'

Rumours of a bid circulated after her Golden Globes speech

Oprah Winfrey accepts the 2018 Cecil B. DeMille Award during the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards on 7 January 2018 (Getty)

Oprah Winfrey has ruled out a run for the US presidency in 2020, saying that “it’s not something that interests me...I don’t have the DNA for it.”

After a powerful speech at the Golden Globes awards ceremony earlier this month, speculation had linked Winfrey with a run for the White House.

Winfrey, a multibillion-dollar media mogul and actress, had just become the first black woman to receive the awards show’s lifetime achievement award.

Her longtime partner Stedman Graham said on a possible bid at the time: “It’s up to the people. She would absolutely do it.”

But, Winfrey put to bed any rumours in a recent interview with In Style magazine.

“I’ve always felt very secure and confident with myself in knowing what I could do and what I could not,” she told the magazine.

“And so it’s not something that interests me. I don’t have the DNA for it. …That’s not for me.”

Speculation about a possible run was fuelled by comments from people close to Winfrey, including her longtime partner Stedman Graham and CBS’ Gayle King.

Yet despite the flood of support for the star, she said it would not be good for her personally.

“Gayle – who knows me as well as I know myself practically – has been calling me regularly and texting me things, like a woman in the airport saying, ‘When’s Oprah going to run’?” Winfrey said. “So Gayle sends me these things, and then she’ll go, ‘I know, I know, I know! It wouldn’t be good for you it would be good for everyone else’.”

Donald Trump had said he would welcome the entry of Ms Winfrey into the race. At one point during his own White House campaign, he had reportedly toyed with the idea of asking her to be his running mate.

When asked about the prospect of running against her in 2010, Mr Trump, said it would be “fun”, adding: “Yeah, I’ll beat Oprah.”