In the kind of world we live in where expectations on women, even in the most advanced countries, always steers towards them getting married- Winfrey and Rhimes seemed strongly unapologetic about their choice.

We had our own mini case here in Gifty Anti, but even she eventually got married.

Shonda Rhimes, creator of hit shows like ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and ‘Scandal’, made an appearance on Supersoul with Oprah. Both being elderly women who never married, the conservation got steered to that.

Opera 61, said she always thought she wanted to get married. But when the time came and her boyfriend proposed, she froze.

“The moment he asked me to marry him, I was like ‘Oh, God! Now I actually have to get married?’

“But what I realised is, I don’t want to be married. Because I could not have the life that I created for myself. I couldn’t do it.”

So she and longtime boyfriend Stedman Graham postponed, and they have never raised the topic again.

Rhimes for her part, also mentioned that she always knew she wanted to have children. Marriage, on the other hand, was something she never dreamed of like other people did.

“I’m one of those people, since I was 5, I could tell you I was going to have kids. I could tell you I was going to have three. I could tell you they were going to be girls,” she said.

“But I have never wanted to get married. I never played bride. I was never interested. I don’t know what it is; I never wanted to get married.”

She said the expectations on women to get married is very strong, very much like the expectation to have children.

“It’s a lot like the desire to want to have children in our society,” she said.

“You’re supposed to want it, and if you don’t want it, what’s wrong with you?” the award winning producer quizzed.