Gayle King Describes the Nicest Thing BFF Oprah Ever Did for Her

Gayle King and BFF Oprah Winfrey have shared over 40 years of friendship and counting. The pair have been there for each other in the good and the bad, but there’s one gesture from Winfrey that King will never forget, and she revealed it in a new interview.

CBS’ “This Morning” anchor Gayle King’s career has skyrocketed in the past couple of months after her explosive interview with disgraced singer R. Kelly, and if there’s someone who always knew what Gayle was made of, is her friend Oprah Winfrey.

THE BEGINNING

The pair met in their 20s while both were working at a Baltimore TV station. Back then, Winfrey was the 6 PM news anchor, and King was a production assistant.

Although it was unusual for anchors to hang out with assistants, an unexpected storm prompted Winfrey to invite King over to her home, and the two bonded almost instantly.

King might be a novelty for many people in the world of news showrooms, but Oprah Winfrey is not surprised by her friend’s achievements.

“We became friends that first night because, for the first time, I met somebody who I felt was like me," Gayle recalled in a 2006 interview with the O Magazine.

It’s been four decades since, and now, both are successful on their own accord, Gayle and Winfrey’s friendship is stronger than ever.

A SPECIAL MEMORY

They have shared millions of moments, good and bad, but according to King, there’s one special friendship gesture from Winfrey that she will never forget.

It happened in New Year’s Eve 1993, shortly after King divorce from William Bumpus.

That holiday, Bumpus would have their kids, Kirby and William, so Gayle would have to spend the day alone.

She called Winfrey and asked what she and longtime partner Graham Stedman were doing, and Winfrey told her they had some plans.

Four hours later, as King prepared to spend the night all alone, her doorbell rang, and there were her friends. “She had been planning to come. I didn’t know that” King explained to People.

The three of them went grocery shopping, and later, Stedman cooked some pasta for the ladies.

“I just kept saying, ‘I can’t believe you guys were here.’ That was something that I’ll never, ever, ever forget,” King stated.

FRIENDSHIP GOES BOTH WAYS

Years later, it was King’s turn to return the favor.

Winfrey was feeling down after being hurt by a betrayal, and when she talked to King on the phone, Gayle knew there was something off, as she recalled:

“I had been talking to her on the telephone. I could tell that she was very upset about something. And I literally, hung up the phone, and I said to the babysitter, ‘I’ve got to go. Is there any way you can spend the night?’”

King didn’t think before hopping on a plane and flying to Winfrey’s home in Laporte, Indiana.

“She showed up at my door and said, ‘I can’t stay, but I just wanted to see your face,'” Winfrey said. “Then she got a glass of water and said, ‘I’m going to go back and get on a plane.’ I was like, ‘What?’ She goes, ‘You said you felt wounded. I never heard you use the word wounded before.'”

A PROUD FRIEND

Now that Gayle King has become the face of CBS’s revamped version of “This Morning,” alongside co-hosts Anthony Mason and Tony Dokoupil, there’s a lot of work to do for the 64-year-old.

However, she has the support of Susan Zirinsky, the network’s new president, and star executive producer Diana Miller, who says America is noticing Gayle because America because “we all wish to be a little more brave, bold, and authentically ourselves. Just like Gayle.”

Although King might be a novelty for many people in the world of news showrooms, Oprah Winfrey is not surprised at her friend’s achievements. If anything, Oprah thinks it took a long time for people to realize the diamond on the rough that Gayle is.

“Gayle has a deep, deep curiosity and yearning to know. That’s the reason why this moment doesn’t surprise me,” Winfrey stated. “What surprises me is that it took them so long to figure it out, everybody else so long to see it.”