Oprah Winfrey always wanted her own church.

The 60-year-old talk show host ''idolised'' pastor and civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. when she was younger and admits moving into television was the closest career path she could find to emulating his leadership.

She said: ''I was so enthralled by Dr. King. I wanted to be Dr. King. I wanted to grow up and have my own church, run my own congregation and be my own order and lead the people. I didn't exactly do that, but my television show was a way of doing that.

''He was an enormous influence on me. Mrs. King was a personal friend of mine until she died. I have a great respect for the legacy of what he left for all of us.''

However, Oprah insists she hasn't achieved anything that compares to the humanitarian - who was assassinated in 1968 - and thinks his endeavours were unique.

Speaking at the premiere of 'Selma' - a historical drama about Dr. King which she has a supporting role in and helped finance - she told the New York Post newspaper's Page Six column: ''In every generation there comes along a person like Dr. King who has the ability to garner the hearts and the spirits of a nation, to help people to see in themselves what they could not possibly believe could be true.

''In my life, I do work to help people from all different backgrounds and I joined this project to help [director] Ava DuVernay and [star] David Oyelowo. I wanted to see them succeed.''