The mogul confesses to her phobia for the October issue of O, which is about stripping anxiety from your life

Some people think balloons make the party. But for Oprah Winfrey, they’re her worst nightmare.

For October’s O Magazine, the media mogul opens up about a real – and somewhat embarrassing – fear: balloons.

Get push notifications with news, features and more.

“I don’t like balloons, and for my 40th birthday my entire staff decided to surprise me,” recalls Winfrey, now 59.”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?'”

“It reminds me of gunfire,” she went on to say, admitting that being around balloons “really freaks me out.”

But Winfrey says she faced those fears: “No way around it – [I] just had to walk through them.”

The intimidating sea of balloons became Winfrey’s metaphor for facing your fears – the theme of the October issue, which hits newsstands Sept. 17.