{"id":669503,"date":"2026-05-28T05:33:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T05:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/669503\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T05:33:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T05:33:10","slug":"gayle-king-says-oprah-refused-to-shut-down-secretly-gay-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/669503\/","title":{"rendered":"Gayle King Says Oprah Refused to Shut Down &#8216;Secretly Gay&#8217; Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/gayle-king\/\" id=\"auto-tag_gayle-king\" data-tag=\"gayle-king\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gayle King<\/a> is once again speaking out about the long-standing rumor that she was dating <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/oprah\/\" id=\"auto-tag_oprah\" data-tag=\"oprah\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oprah<\/a> Winfrey, and explaining why the iconic host refused to publicly shut it down on \u201cThe Oprah Winfrey Show.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSpeaking with <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/alex-cooper\/\" id=\"auto-tag_alex-cooper\" data-tag=\"alex-cooper\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Alex Cooper<\/a> on her viral \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/call-her-daddy\/\" id=\"auto-tag_call-her-daddy\" data-tag=\"call-her-daddy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Call Her Daddy<\/a>\u201d podcast, the CBS Mornings co-<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Fj9YNo_cUgU\">host was asked <\/a>how she used to \u201chandle\u201d rumors that she was secretly dating Winfrey: \u201cIt used to really bother me. I was recently divorced and the National Enquirer did a story about [how] that\u2019s the reason for the divorce, because they\u2019re secretly gay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tShe continued, \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. I prefer a man.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tKing recalls urging Winfrey to say something on her talk show, \u201cbecause it\u2019s hard enough for me to get a date on a Saturday night and now people think I\u2019m a lesbian, you\u2019ve gotta say something.\u201d Winfrey\u2019s response was to \u201cjust leave it be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAlthough Winfrey\u2019s handling of the situation used to bother King, she says she doesn\u2019t care anymore: \u201cI\u2019ve now gotten to the point in my life that very few things get to me. Because, you know, when you go on social media, it is an accelerator on hate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tWinfrey previously addressed the rumor during a 2024 episode of \u201cMoments That Make Us,\u201d saying, \u201cMaybe people aren\u2019t accustomed to seeing women with this kind of truth bond. The reason why I think our friendship has worked is because Gayle is happier, not happy, for me in any kind of success or victory or challenge I get through than I am for myself. And I feel as happy as she does \u2014 I can\u2019t be happier than, cannot surpass Gayle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tDuring King\u2019s \u201cCall Her Daddy\u201d conversation, which went on for over an hour, she also addressed her 1993 divorce from attorney William Bumpus and how she has navigated sexism and racism in the industry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tWatch King\u2019s full interview with Cooper below.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gayle King is once again speaking out about the long-standing rumor that she was dating Oprah Winfrey, and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[41460,39916,88,36061,33332],"class_list":["post-669503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-alex-cooper","tag-call-her-daddy","tag-entertainment","tag-gayle-king","tag-oprah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}