Gayle King opened up this week about the decades-long rumors that she and Oprah Winfrey are involved in a secret romantic relationship. The longtime journalist, 71, appeared on Wednesday's episode of the "Call Her Daddy" podcast and responded after host Alex Cooper asked her, "Tell me how that feels when you guys have had to handle those headlines, handle those rumors, handle that speculation."
"It used to really bother me," King confessed. "I was recently divorced, and there was — 'The National Enquirer' did a story... 'That's the reason for the divorce, because they're secretly gay.'" King was referring to her 1993 divorce from attorney William Bumpus. "Number one, if we were gay, we would tell you because, believe me, there's nothing wrong with it. It's just, I prefer a man," she said.
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. Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King first became friends in 1976 while working together at WJZ-TV in Baltimore.
"I would say to her, 'You've got to say something on your show, because it's hard enough for me to get a date on a Saturday night and now people think I'm a lesbian, you've got to say something,'" King recalled. She said Winfrey told her she thought the better route was to ignore the hearsay and "leave it alone." "I said, 'Well, that's fine for you to say. You have somebody. I don't,'" King said.
"So it used to really bother me. And now, even today, there's still people that say, 'Well, you know, the truth is...' I don't care," she added. "I've now gotten to the point in my life that very few things get to me."
Winfrey, who has been friends with King for 50 years, previously shut down the rumors about their connection in the August 2006 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine, but noted that she can "understand why people think we're gay." "Something about this relationship feels otherworldly to me, like it was designed by a power and a hand greater than my own," Oprah said. "Whatever this friendship is, it's been a very fun ride — and we've taken it together."
Watch King's interview on "Call Her Daddy" below. Skip to the 23:27 mark to hear her comments about the rumors.
