(Cover) - EN Showbiz - Oprah Winfrey has admitted that starting her own television network has been harder than she imagined.

The American star is a giant of the talk show world and is the first person many high-profile celebrities will speak to in public.

She even came first in the recent Forbes magazine list of the most powerful famous faces in the world despite the fact her eponymous talk show had ended.

Oprah, though, has decided to launch her own media brand, called OWN.

But the experience and the effort it entails has taken her by surprise.

"Harder, much harder. Much harder!" Oprah replied when asked by Extra how the whole project is going. The 56-year-old added it is likely to get more difficult once the network is off the ground. She realises that it is something that will need a great deal of attention.

All along I was saying it's a launch. It's not the raisin' of the baby, it's just the birthin' of the baby," Oprah explained. "And now we gotta get the clothes and get the babies to school. You gotta build, build, build."

She joked that, while she expected a rest, this is unlikely to be possible for the next few years.

"Originally, I had thought I was going to end the Oprah show and take a little cruise for myself... and it's the opposite. So I'll be vacationing around 2014," she laughed. (C) Cover Media