Oprah Winfrey is one of the world’s most powerful women — but she’s terrified of balloons, she admits in a new interview.
The 59-year-old media mogul has an irrational fear of the floating party favors because she’s constantly nervous they will pop, the star told O Magazine.
“It reminds me of gunfire…really freaks me out,” she said in the yet-to-be published interview.
Her weird fear sometimes makes attending parties tricky, she admitted.
“I don’t like balloons, and for my 40th birthday my entire staff decided to surprise me,” she recalled.
“I come downstairs and the entire audience is filled with balloons. Literally, I’m stepping over balloons, having to walk through balloons and I’m so, like, ‘Oh! When is one going to pop?'”
But instead of running away she confronted those scary decorations head-on.
“No way around it – [I] just had to walk through them,” she said.
Oprah used the balloon story as a way to illustrate the idea that people should face their fears, which is a theme for the magazine’s October issue.
“There are a few things that in life, if you allow them to, can really keep you from moving forward. You have to really walk through it,” she said.
O Magazine’s October issue hits the stands on Sept. 17. People Magazine published an excerpt of the interview on Tuesday.