Oprah Winfrey has finally spoken out about the persistent rumors surrounding her relationship with fellow broadcaster Gayle King, acknowledging that she understands why some people “may think it.”
On Wednesday (July 24), 70-year-old Winfrey and 69-year-old King appeared on Melinda French Gates’ Moments That Make Us series.
During the candid discussion, they talked about their experiences with aging, lessons learned over the years, and the value of female friendships.
While reflecting on their lifelong bond, Winfrey addressed the longstanding rumor that she and King were a couple.
“I think we’ve shared pretty much everything and I would have to say, it wasn’t even a matter of navigation,” she said during the YouTube interview.
“For years, people used to say we were gay, and listen, we were up against that forever. And people still may think it.”
CBS Mornings anchor King agreed and continued: “I used to say to Oprah: ‘You gotta do a show on this because it’s hard enough for me to get a date on Saturday night with people thinking we’re gay’.
“Because if we were gay, we’d tell you!”
Winfrey, who has been in a long-term relationship with Stedman Graham since 1986, explained that she believes the rumors arose because people weren’t used to seeing women share such a close bond.
“One of the things I used to think was that people weren’t accustomed to seeing women with this kind of truth bond,” she stated.
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“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.
“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 … [There is not even a] hint of jealousy about anything.”
King concluded the conversation by saying that “everybody” should have at least one “really good” friend in their lives.
The pair first became friends in the late ’70s while working together at the Baltimore-area news station WJZ-TV.
Winfrey, a 22-year-old news anchor at the time, offered King, then 21 and educated at the University of Maryland, a place to stay during a major snowstorm.
“We ended up talking all night long,” the Mississippi native revealed to People in 2022. “We’ve literally been friends ever since.”
In 2006, King told The Oprah Magazine that she had “never met” anybody like her friend, while Winfrey said they bonded over both being “the odd girl out.”
“We didn’t fit into everybody else’s perception of what it’s like to be a Black girl,” she said.
“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!”