{"id":698594,"date":"2026-05-28T04:27:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T04:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/698594\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T04:27:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T04:27:11","slug":"gayle-kings-ex-publicly-apologizes-for-cheating-on-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/698594\/","title":{"rendered":"Gayle King’s Ex Publicly Apologizes for Cheating on Her"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gayle King<\/a>\u2019s ex-husband William Bumpus publicly apologized for cheating on her nearly 40 years ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy deepest apologies to Gayle, to our daughter Kirby and her husband, Virgil, to our son William and his wife, Elise, and to our three grandchildren, for the pain I caused decades ago. Those actions were mine,\u201d Bumpus, 70, told TMZ<\/a> in a statement released on Thursday, May 27. \u201cI have long owned [my actions] \u2014 including publicly in my own words in 2016<\/a>, which still stand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bumpus spoke out after King, 71, opened up to Alex Cooper on Wednesday\u2019s \u201cCall Her Daddy\u201d podcast episode about catching her ex cheating with one of her best friends in 1990.<\/p>\n

\u201cGayle has every right to share what was a painful chapter that changed the trajectory of our marriage and our family nearly 40 years ago,\u201d he added. \u201cI respect her right to tell her story, and that\u2019s where I\u2019ll leave it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The attorney stressed that he is \u201cendlessly grateful\u201d to King, both for their marriage and for their coparenting relationship. (King and Bumpus divorced in 1993.)<\/p>\n

\u201cShe gave me two of the greatest gifts of my life \u2014 our daughter Kirby and our son William. It was Gayle who encouraged and supported me through getting my Yale Law degree,\u201d Bumpus recalled. \u201cAnd it was Gayle who chose, with me, to co-parent successfully from the very beginning \u2014 a testament to our shared commitment to our children above all else, and now our grandchildren. The love and camaraderie we forged in that work have carried us all these years.\u201d<\/p>\n

He celebrated his \u201ccommitment\u201d to coparenting with King \u201cnearly four decades later,\u201d adding that they are \u201cin a good place\u201d today<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a private person by nature, I will admit that during our marriage I did not fully appreciate Gayle\u2019s public life \u2014 I wanted ours to be more private, and that was something I wrestled with, and no reflection on her true talent and abilities,\u201d he stated. \u201cI am proud to have had a front-row seat to Gayle\u2019s remarkable success, and I remain a genuine admirer and fan.\u201d<\/p>\n

His statement concluded, \u201cI continue to work at being the best version of myself, grounded by the friendship, encouragement, and support of Gayle over the years, by the love of our grown children and our grandchildren, and by the daily privilege of raising Poet as a single dad. That is where my focus remains \u2014 on my family, on my clients, and on the work ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Gayle
\n William Bumpus Sr. Courtesy Instagram \/ William Bumpus<\/p>\n

During her \u201cCall Her Daddy\u201d interview, King revealed that she returned home in June 1990 after a flight was canceled, but her then-husband tried to stop her from coming into the residence. King admitted that she was \u201cso oblivious\u201d that she started \u201csearching the house\u201d to find out what Bumpus meant.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t believe him,\u201d she recalled. \u201cI get down and there they are \u2014 or there she is cowering behind the door in my towel. It was a nice bath sheet.\u201d<\/p>\n

King explained to Cooper, 31, that she kept her composure throughout the confrontation with her husband and his mistress in order to shield her young children from trauma.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was thinking, \u2018The kids are here, I don\u2019t want anybody to know,\u2019\u201d she remembered. \u201cThat was my main thought, \u2018I don\u2019t want anybody to know.\u2019 That would not happen to me today.\u201d<\/p>\n

She continued, \u201cI kept thinking, \u2018I don\u2019t want it to be a scene,\u2019 because they\u2019re little, they know this person. My main thing was how do I \u2014 which is what I do about most things \u2014 how do I handle this situation in this moment?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"GettyImages-1913163428-Gayle-Kings-CBS-Mornings-Fate-Officially-Revealed-After-Exit-Rumors.jpg\"
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n Related: Gayle King\u2019s \u2018CBS Mornings\u2019 Fate Revealed After Exit Rumors<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGayle King is staying on CBS Mornings\u00a0despite speculation she planned to exit later this year. \u201cRumors of my demise were inaccurate and greatly exaggerated,\u201d King, 71, said in a statement to Variety on Wednesday, March 4. \u201cCBS News is my longtime home, and I am committed to our mission.\u201d She added: \u201cI\u2019m excited about continuing [\u2026]\t\t<\/p>\n

The couple tried to repair their marriage in the aftermath of Bumpus\u2019 cheating, though they ultimately divorced three years later.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was happy,\u201d King confessed. \u201cYou know how they say the wife always knows? I swear to God I did not. I did not. \u2026 It\u2019s not like we hadn\u2019t had arguments or anything, but I didn\u2019t think that it was such disrepair that he was boinking around.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"
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\t\tThank You!<\/p>\n

You have successfully subscribed.<\/p>\n

As he mentioned in his statement to TMZ, Bumpus previously publicly apologized in 2016 by telling Page Six<\/a> that he remained \u201chaunted with this life-altering choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThough I have dealt with this privately \u2026 I publicly apologize for the major transgression that dramatically changed all of our lives,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n

In addition to his two children with King, Bumpus is a father to daughter Poet, 16, from another relationship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gayle King\u2019s ex-husband William Bumpus publicly apologized for cheating on her nearly 40 years ago. \u201cMy deepest apologies…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,362,90851,75,44],"class_list":["post-698594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrity-news","tag-celebrity-splits","tag-entertainment","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}