{"id":449130,"date":"2026-05-28T08:14:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T08:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/449130\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T08:14:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T08:14:15","slug":"gayle-king-addresses-oprah-winfrey-relationship-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/449130\/","title":{"rendered":"Gayle King Addresses Oprah Winfrey Relationship Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gayle King opened up this week about the decades-long rumors that she and Oprah Winfrey are involved in a secret romantic relationship. <\/p>\n

The longtime journalist, 71, appeared on Wednesday\u2019s episode of the \u201cCall Her Daddy<\/a>\u201d podcast and responded after host Alex Cooper asked her, \u201cTell me how that feels when you guys have had to handle those headlines, handle those rumors, handle that speculation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt used to really bother me,\u201d King confessed. \u201cI was recently divorced, and there was \u2014 \u2018The National Enquirer\u2019 did a story… \u2018That\u2019s the reason for the divorce, because they\u2019re secretly gay.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

King was referring to her 1993 divorce<\/a> from attorney William Bumpus. <\/p>\n

\u201cNumber one, if we were gay, we would tell you because, believe me, there\u2019s nothing wrong with it. It\u2019s just, I prefer a man,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The CBS host said the gossip escalated so much that she asked Winfrey to personally shut down the rumors, but they butted heads over it. <\/p>\n

\"OprahOprah Winfrey and Gayle King first became friends in 1976 while working together at WJZ-TV in Baltimore. <\/p>\n

\u201cI would say to her, \u2018You\u2019ve got to say something on your show, because it\u2019s hard enough for me to get a date on a Saturday night and now people think I\u2019m a lesbian, you\u2019ve got to say something,\u2019\u201d King recalled. She said Winfrey told her she thought the better route was to ignore the hearsay and \u201cleave it alone.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Well, that\u2019s fine for you to say. You have somebody. I don\u2019t,\u2019\u201d King said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it used to really bother me. And now, even today, there\u2019s still people that say, \u2018Well, you know, the truth is…\u2019 I don\u2019t care,\u201d she added. \u201cI\u2019ve now gotten to the point in my life that very few things get to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winfrey, who has been friends with King for 50 years, previously shut down the rumors<\/a> about their connection in the August 2006 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine, but noted that she can \u201cunderstand why people think we\u2019re gay.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cSomething about this relationship feels otherworldly to me, like it was designed by a power and a hand greater than my own,\u201d Oprah said. \u201cWhatever this friendship is, it\u2019s been a very fun ride \u2014 and we\u2019ve taken it together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch King\u2019s interview on \u201cCall Her Daddy\u201d below. Skip to the 23:27 mark to hear her comments about the rumors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gayle King opened up this week about the decades-long rumors that she and Oprah Winfrey are involved in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,76299,111,139,69,18218,18225],"class_list":["post-449130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-gayle-king","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-oprah","tag-oprah-winfrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}