“I thought, ‘Before the baby was born, I’m going to have to kill myself,’ ” she told Piers Morgan during the interview, which aired on CNN Monday night, citing the stigma of being an unwed mother at the time, and her father’s view of unwed mothers.

The NY Daily reports, While explaining the strict rules of the household, her father — not knowing his daughter was pregnant — declared, “I would rather see a daughter of mine floating down the Cumberland River than to bring shame on this family and the indecency of an illegitimate child.”

Fearful, Winfrey thought, “Before the baby was born, I’m going to have to kill myself,” adding she did “stupid things like drinking detergent and all that kind of crazy stuff that you do when you’re trying to get attention, when you’re really just trying to cry for help.”