Oprah Winfrey & Gayle King Address Longstanding Lesbian Rumors

Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King
Melinda French Gates YouTube

Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King have been reflecting on their decades-long friendship, including the longstanding rumors about their sexual orientations.

The pair appeared on Melinda French Gates’ Moments That Make Us YouTube series on Wednesday (July 24), where they spoke openly about their close friendship. “I think we’ve shared pretty much everything and I would have to say, it wasn’t even a matter of navigation,” Winfrey said.

Winfrey went on to say that people have often mistaken her close bond with King for something more. “You know, for years, people used to say we were gay, and listen, we were up against that forever. And people still may think it,” she shared.

King added, “I used to say ‘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!”

The Color Purple star noted that those kinds of rumors come about because people “aren’t used to seeing women with this kind of truth bond.”

Winfrey and King have been friends for almost 50 years, starting when both women worked at the WJZ-TV news station in Baltimore. At the time, Winfrey was a 22-year-old news anchor and King was a 21-year-old production assistant. They grew close after a heavy snowstorm was in the forecast and Winfrey offered King a place to stay for the night.

“We ended up talking all night long,” told People in a 2022 interview. “We’ve literally been friends ever since.”

In the Moments Make Us interview, Winfrey detailed why she thinks her friendship with King has worked so well. “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,” Winfrey shared.

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.”

King also noted how their longtime friendship has allowed them to be open and honest with one another.

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

“We’ve both done that,” Winfrey agreed.