{"id":2471,"date":"2026-05-28T13:08:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T13:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/05\/28\/gayle-king-i-begged-oprah-to-quash-the-gay-rumors\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T13:08:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T13:08:00","slug":"gayle-king-i-begged-oprah-to-quash-the-gay-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/05\/28\/gayle-king-i-begged-oprah-to-quash-the-gay-rumors\/","title":{"rendered":"Gayle King: I BEGGED Oprah to Quash the Gay Rumors!"},"content":{"rendered":"<article id=\"post-555941\">\n<div>\n<p><span><span>Reading Time: <\/span> <span> 3<\/span> <span>minutes<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>She and Oprah Winfrey are not and have <em>never <\/em>been an item.<\/p>\n<p>Sorry, folks.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to revealing how she once <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehollywoodgossip.com\/2026\/05\/gayle-king-describes-catching-ex-husband-affair-close-friend\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">caught her now-ex and his mistress<\/a> (her former close friend), Gayle King also opened up about the longstanding gay rumors.<\/p>\n<p>When tabloids first began claiming that the two were <em>secret lovers<\/em>, Gayle begged her bestie to quash the claims. Oprah declined.<\/p>\n<figure><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" alt=\"Gayle King on Call Her Daddy speaking\"   src=\"https:\/\/cdn.thehollywoodgossip.com\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0527_use_gayleking_02.png\" loading=\"lazy\" data-trellis-processed=\"1\"><figcaption>During her \u2018Call Her Daddy\u2019 podcast interview, Gayle King delved into a variety of personal topics.<span> (Image Credit: YouTube)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 id=\"h-if-we-were-gay-we-would-tell-you\">\u2018If we were gay, we would tell you\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>During the Wednesday, May 27 episode of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Fj9YNo_cUgU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Call Her Daddy<\/em> podcast<\/a>, Gayle told host Alex Cooper how the gay rumors used to get under her skin.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI tell you this, it used to really bother me,\u201d the iconic broadcast journalist admitted.<\/p>\n<p>It all started in 1993, when she \u2014 famously \u2014 caught her ex-husband, William Bumpus, cheating with a close friend. The two divorced.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, a tabloid ran a nonsensical story claiming that Gayle and longtime bestie Ooprah were \u201csecretly gay.\u201d And it got to her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNumber one, if we were gay, we would tell you because, believe me, there\u2019s nothing wrong with it,\u201d Gayle emphasized. \u201cIt\u2019s just I prefer a man. I prefer a man.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p> <iframe title=\"How Gayle King Really Feels About Those Oprah Secret Romance Rumors\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" data-cookieconsent=\"statistics, marketing\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Jr-GQJWisls?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe><div class=\"cookieconsent-optout-statistics cookieconsent-optout-marketing\">Please accept <a href=\"javascript:Cookiebot.renew()\">statistics, marketing<\/a> cookies to watch this video.<\/div> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cAnd then I 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,&#8217;\u201d Gayle recalled telling Oprah.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2018You\u2019ve got to say something.\u2019 And she said, \u2018No, we should just leave it be,&#8217;\u201d she recalled. \u201c\u2018No, I\u2019m just going to leave it alone. Leave it alone.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Oprah was, for 25 years, one of the most watched and influential people on the planet. She still falls into the latter category.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, well, that\u2019s fine for you to say. You have somebody. I don\u2019t,\u201d Gayle remembered grumbling at the time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, it used to really bother me,\u201d she reiterated. \u201cAnd now even today there are still people that say, \u2018Well, you know, the truth is. \u2026&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" alt=\"Gayle King on Call Her Daddy\"   src=\"https:\/\/cdn.thehollywoodgossip.com\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0527_use_gayleking_01.png\" loading=\"lazy\" data-trellis-processed=\"1\"><figcaption>Journalistic icon Gayle King joined the \u2018Call Her Daddy\u2019 podcast in May 2026.<span> (Image Credit: YouTube)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 id=\"h-i-ve-now-gotten-to-the-point-in-my-life-that-very-few-things-get-to-me\">\u2018I\u2019ve now gotten to the point in my life that very few things get to me\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Time has taught Gayle to care less about what others imagine her life to be like.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t care,\u201d she bluntly admitted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve now gotten to the point in my life that very few things get to me,\u201d Gayle shared.<\/p>\n<p>She explained that this is \u201cbecause, you know, when you go on social media, it is an accelerator on hate.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Gayle expressed: \u201cAs long as I feel good about what I\u2019m doing \u2026 Otherwise, you\u2019ll drive yourself nuts. So now I really don\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Gayle King: He Cheated with My Close Friend\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" data-cookieconsent=\"statistics, marketing\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Fj9YNo_cUgU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><div class=\"cookieconsent-optout-statistics cookieconsent-optout-marketing\">Please accept <a href=\"javascript:Cookiebot.renew()\">statistics, marketing<\/a> cookies to watch this video.<\/div> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Oprah has been with Stedman Graham since 1986. She and Gayle met when both worked for WJZ-TV Baltimore.<\/p>\n<p>Some people respond to gay rumors \u2014 in person or from tabloids \u2014 with explicit homophobia. Notably, Gayle is decidedly not doing that.<\/p>\n<p>Incidentally, Gayle did not limit her commentary on relationships to clarifying that she likes men. She told Alex that she prefers younger men.<\/p>\n<p>Honestly? Good for her. And, for what it\u2019s worth, it\u2019s pretty reasonable to be annoyed at people speculating that you and your bestie are secret lovers.<\/p>\n<p>Gayle is a legendary broadcast journalist. She signed up to report the news. She never wanted to <em>be<\/em> the news.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reading Time: 3 minutes She and Oprah Winfrey are not and have never been an item. Sorry, folks. In addition to revealing how she once caught her now-ex and his mistress (her former close friend), Gayle King also opened up about the longstanding gay rumors. When tabloids first began claiming that the two were secret lovers, Gayle begged her bestie to quash the claims. Oprah declined. During her \u2018Call Her Daddy\u2019 podcast interview, Gayle King delved into a variety of personal topics. (Image Credit: YouTube) \u2018If we were gay, we would tell you\u2019 During the Wednesday, May 27 episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast, Gayle told host Alex Cooper [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[66,44,2,1527,233,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gayle-king","category-general-celebrity-news","category-hollywood","category-oprah-winfrey","category-relationships","category-spotlight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}