Oprah Winfrey names her biggest career regret on Keke Palmer’s podcast, and calls her 1998 self-recorded theme song ‘bad’

Oprah Winfrey named the biggest regret of her long media career during an appearance on Keke Palmer’s podcast, Baby, This Is Keke Palmer. The 72-year-old media mogul said a theme song she recorded herself in 1998 was one of the “mistakes” of her career, according to a clip shared on Instagram.

The moment came up after Palmer began singing part of the song, titled Run On, which Winfrey had recorded for The Oprah Winfrey Show. Winfrey visibly winced and reacted with embarrassment as Palmer sang the tune, reports the Daily Mail.

“Girl, please,” Winfrey said, before adding, “Ok, that is one of the mistakes of my career.” The song was created at a moment when Winfrey was deciding whether to continue her show, she said on the podcast.

Winfrey explained how the 1998 theme song came together

She had considered ending it before choosing to keep going. “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,'” Winfrey said.

She went on to say that she suggested using an old spiritual song for the show at that time. “And so I said, ‘You know, there’s this song. It’s an old spiritual,'” she said. Winfrey then acknowledged that her own singing ability was limited, despite having taken lessons. “And then we realized, I can’t sing… even though I took the singing lessons,” she said.

Run On was used as the introduction for season 13 episodes of The Oprah Winfrey Show and included an accompanying music video. Winfrey enlisted a church choir to help perform the song, and behind-the-scenes footage showed her in a recording studio.

Winfrey stood by her assessment of the song during the podcast conversation. “It was bad. You know it was bad,” she told Palmer. The Oprah Winfrey Show aired from 1986 to 2011 and featured thousands of guests over its run, including both public figures and members of the public. Winfrey later launched the Oprah Winfrey Network, which remains active.

During the same podcast appearance, Winfrey also addressed her birth name, telling Palmer that it is actually “Orpah,” not “Oprah.” “It was Orpah from the Bible,” she said. She explained that the name changed during her childhood because people had difficulty spelling it correctly. 

“It’s not what made me. I was a kid. Nobody knew how to spell it,” Winfrey said. Other celebrities have also opened up about the reasoning behind their birth names, including why she traded her real last name.

She added that her birth certificate still lists her name as “Orpah.” “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.”

Winfrey was around 20 years old when she learned that the name used by her family and friends differed from the one on her birth certificate. She then referenced the biblical origin of the name during the conversation. “Ruth, first chapter, 14th verse. It’s that whole Ruth and Naomi story,” she said. Name changes tied to personal circumstances have drawn public attention in other cases as well, including one involving a teen’s decision to change her birth name.

She went on to describe the biblical passage, saying, “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.'” Winfrey also pointed out that Palmer has a legal name different from the one she is publicly known by, citing “Lauren Keyana Palmer” as her birth name. Palmer responded to the comment with enthusiasm. “I’m so happy that you knew that!” she said.

The conversation was part of a broader episode of Palmer’s podcast, Baby, This Is Keke Palmer, and was shared in part through a behind-the-scenes clip posted to Instagram.