Oprah Winfrey shut down the longstanding rumor that she and her longtime best friend, Gayle King, have secretly been in a decades-long romantic relationship.
While appearing on Melinda French Gates’ Moments That Make Us interview series, the 70-year-old media mogul, who has been with partner Stedman Graham for over 35 years, reflected on her close bond with King, 69.
‘I think we’ve shared pretty much everything and I would have to say, it wasn’t even a matter of navigation,’ the former daytime TV legend said. ‘For years, people used to say we were gay, and listen, we were up against that forever. And people still may think it.’
King quipped that she use to ask Oprah to do a show clarifying they were just friends as it was ‘hard enough for’ her ‘to get a date on Saturday night without people thinking they were together.
‘If we were gay, we’d tell you!’ the mother-of-two assured viewers.
As for what she thinks sparks speculation that they are more than just friends, Winfrey said it’s because people ‘aren’t used 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, but happier for me for any kind of success or victory or challenge I get through than I am for myself,’ the 20-time Emmy winner stated.
She continued: ‘And I feel as happy as she does — I can’t be happier than, cannot surpass Gayle. You cannot out-happy her. I am equally as happy for her.’
Winfrey noted that even a ‘hint of jealousy about anything’ between friends can ruin the relationship.
‘I just assumed everybody had a really good friend,’ King said of her and Winfrey’s friendship. ‘I just assumed every woman – maybe not for men – but I just assumed every woman had at least one.’
King also noted that she’s not afraid to be real with her BFF.
‘In Oprah’s life, everybody is always very flattering and is always very agreeable with things that she says,’ she explained. ‘And sometimes I’ll just go, “That’s just not true. Your hair does not look good.”‘
During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live back in 2013, Winfrey denied ever taking ‘a dip in the lady pond.
Three years earlier, she said in an interview with Barbara Walters that she’s ‘not a lesbian’ or ‘even kind of a lesbian.’
‘Why would you want to hide it? That is not the way I run my life,’ she said of her sexuality.
When asked to describe her relationship with King, Winfrey said her pal was ‘the mother’ she ‘never had’ and the ‘sister everybody would want.’
‘She is the friend that everybody deserves,’ Winfrey said. ‘I don’t know a better person.’
King stated in the past that it’s ‘irritating and silly that anybody still questions’ the nature of their relationship.
‘I think the most troubling thing that bothers me about it is the fact that we would deny it, and we’ve both said this many times, implies that there’s something wrong with being gay. That people would think that we would be gay and deny it like there’s something wrong. I think that’s unfair to gay people. I think it’s unfair to Stedman [Graham]. I think it’s unfair to me and I think it’s unfair to her,’ King said on Nightline in 2011.
In 2006, the pals set the record straight in an issue of Winfrey’s magazine, O.
‘I understand why people think we’re gay, Winfrey admitted. ‘There isn’t a definition in our culture for this kind of bond between women. So I get why people have to label it – how can you be this close without it being sexual?’
At the time, King was emphatic that ‘there’s nothing wrong with being gay’ and if they were they would come out.
King, then, confessed: ‘If Oprah were a man, I would marry her.’
‘Something about this relationship feels otherworldly to me, like it was designed by a power and hand greater than my own,’ Winfrey concluded. ‘Whatever this friendship is, it’s been a very fun ride.’
The duo first met early in their careers while working for Baltimore’s WJZ station.
At the time, Oprah was an anchor and King was employed as a production assistant in a different department.
During an issue of O, The Oprah Magazine, King recalled how Oprah generously invited her to stay with her during a snowstorm .
‘We became friends that first night because for the first time, I met somebody who I felt was like me,’ Gayle said. ‘I’d never met anybody like that. Certainly not another Black girl. I grew up in an all-white community.’
While looking back at themselves as twenty-somethings, Winfrey said they both felt like ‘the-odd-girl-out’ and ‘didn’t fit in to everybody else’s perception of what it’s like to be a Black girl.’
‘But we still had a very strong sense of being Black and were very proud of being Black. So to meet another Black girl like that was, wow!’ King added.
Since their fateful introduction, the pals have enjoyed countless vacations together and collaborated professionally on various projects.
King even chose Winfrey to be the godmother for both her children Kirby Bumpus, 38, and William Bumpus Jr., 37.
‘We became friends that first night because for the first time, I met somebody who I felt was like me,’ Gayle said. ‘I’d never met anybody like that. Certainly not another Black girl. I grew up in an all-white community.’
While looking back at themselves as twenty-somethings, Winfrey said they both felt like ‘the-odd-girl-out’ and ‘didn’t fit in to everybody else’s perception of what it’s like to be a Black girl.’
‘But we still had a very strong sense of being Black and were very proud of being Black. So to meet another Black girl like that was, wow!’ King added.
Since their fateful introduction, the pals have enjoyed countless vacations together and collaborated professionally on various projects.
King even chose Winfrey to be the godmother for both her children Kirby Bumpus, 38, and William Bumpus Jr., 37.
Even after all these years, King said she never gets tired about being asked about her best friend in interviews.
‘I never get sick of being asked about Oprah because I so love that she is loved the way she is. I so love that she is embraced the way she is. And it only makes me proud,’ she told Newsweek in March 2024.
She explained: ‘I feel about Oprah the way I feel about [my] favorite son, Will, and [my] favorite daughter, Kirby, that I can’t wait for people to meet them because they never disappoint me.’
Ultimately King said she has never seen herself in Oprah’s ‘shadow.’
‘I see myself in her light. So anytime somebody says something about her to me, I am never offended by that ever,’ she raved.
Even after all these years, King said she never gets tired about being asked about her best friend in interviews.
‘I never get sick of being asked about Oprah because I so love that she is loved the way she is. I so love that she is embraced the way she is. And it only makes me proud,’ she told Newsweek in March 2024.
She explained: ‘I feel about Oprah the way I feel about [my] favorite son, Will, and [my] favorite daughter, Kirby, that I can’t wait for people to meet them because they never disappoint me.’
Ultimately King said she has never seen herself in Oprah’s ‘shadow.’
‘I see myself in her light. So anytime somebody says something about her to me, I am never offended by that ever,’ she raved.
