Gayle King’s sexuality has been a hot-button subject for years — thanks, principally, to her tight-knit friendship together with her bestie, Oprah Winfrey. For years, of us have speculated concerning the true nature of the ladies’s unprecedented bond, which as just lately as April 2025 had Winfrey caught on digital camera shedding tears as King launched into her controversial Blue Origin flight alongside an all-women crew. Nonetheless, Winfrey wasn’t partaking in pre-flight mourning, ought to one thing have gone incorrect. She was overtaken with delight for King. “When folks noticed her crying, folks stated, ‘Oh, she’s so anxious,'” Gayle shared with E! Information following the flight. “… That wasn’t it in any respect. She was crying as a result of she knew what it took for me to try this … she was saying, ‘I am so happy with you. You probably did that, and I am so happy with you.'”

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After all, the assist goes each methods. In September 2023, for instance, King got here to her bestie’s protection after mannequin Cindy Crawford recalled an disagreeable expertise she had on Winfrey’s present early in her profession. “I have not seen it, and I need to see it, however I am shocked and just a little upset,” King shared with ET. “As a result of I do know Cindy’s been on her present many, many, many instances and it has at all times been a nice expertise, [so] I might hate to assume that one thing that occurred years in the past [could have bothered her].” She continued, “It is not Oprah’s factor to humiliate or make anyone really feel badly.” 

Gayle King and Oprah Winfrey’s friendship has sparked curiosity of their sexual preferences. Winfrey has opened up about her sexuality, denying rumors that she was romantically linked to King. This hypothesis has continued, regardless of Winfrey’s long-standing romance together with her life accomplice, Stedman Graham, whom she’s been in a dedicated relationship with since 1986. It is also lasted by her BFF’s personal relationship adventures, which kicked off after King’s disastrous divorce in 1993. They’ve even denied the rumors of a romance collectively. “I used to say to Oprah, ‘You gotta do a present on this, as a result of it is laborious sufficient for me to get a date on Saturday evening with folks pondering we’re homosexual,'” shared King on Melinda Gate’s “Moments that Make Us” sequence. “As a result of if we had been homosexual, we’d let you know!”

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King, who’s additionally a supporter of homosexual marriage, made comparable feedback when talking with Advocate in 2010. “Like I stated earlier than, I might so inform folks if I used to be homosexual,” King said. “I used to assume that we would have liked to do one thing to answer that rumor — as a result of it is laborious sufficient to get a date on a Saturday evening.” King additionally revealed that the hypothesis insulted her due to the implication that she was mendacity. “I stay up for the day when folks do not feel the need to cover who they’re — or have the worry that individuals is not going to be accepting of who they’re,” she continued. “It is 2010, and I personally cannot wait till that is now not a difficulty for anyone — homosexual or straight.”