WATCH | ‘We have a true bond’: Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King

‘She is the mother, sister and friend I never had’

31 July 2024 - 09:17
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Media personalities Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King speak about the power of friendship with Melinda French Gates.
Media personalities Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King speak about the power of friendship with Melinda French Gates.
Image: Melinda French Gates/ Instagram

TV personalities and lifelong friends Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King have again dismissed speculation they are in a romantic relationship.

In a recent interview with Melinda French Gates on the Moments That Make Us YouTube series, the two friends addressed the lesbian rumours.

“I think we have shared pretty much everything, and I would have to say it was not even a matter of navigation. For years people used to say we were gay, and we were up against that forever. People still may think it,” Winfrey said.

King said: “I used to say, ‘Oprah, you have to do a show on this because it’s hard enough for me to get a date on Saturday night with people thinking we are gay’. If we were gay, we would tell you.”

Winfrey, 70, and King, 69, have been friends for almost 50 years. The two media moguls were colleagues in the 1970s and have been inseparable since then.

They have been seen together on many occasions, from TV shows and red carpet events to social media, showcasing their strong bond of friendship and fuelling rumours that they were dating.

To celebrate turning 60, Melinda French Gates sat down with iconic changemakers of all ages to talk about their biggest life transitions for a special series, “Moments That Make Us”. In this episode she chats with the legendary Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King about the joys of getting older, the power of female friendship and the lessons that moments of change can offer.

Winfrey said their friendship sparked lesbian rumours because people “are not accustomed to seeing women with this kind of true bond”.

The media mogul said her friendship with King thrives because they are genuinely happy for each other's success.

“Gayle is happier, not just 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 her; I cannot surpass Gayle. You cannot outhappy her. I am equally as happy for her.

“Gayle is the mother, sister, and friend I never had. She fills a role for me that is as solid as a mother, sister or anything can be,” Winfrey said.

King said another factor that makes their friendship stronger is honesty.

“In Oprah’s life, everybody is always very flattering and very agreeable with the things she says. And sometimes I’ll just go, ‘That’s just not true. Your hair does not look good’,” Gayle said.

The pair also spoke about how their friendship has positively affected their lives. Winfrey said King would be living differently if she had not divorced her ex-husband, William Bumpus, who she was married to from 1982 to 1993.


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