‘If we had been homosexual, we’d let you know!’
Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King are as soon as once more addressing rumors about their sexual orientations.
Winfrey, 70, and King, 69, talked about their decades-long friendship in an interview launched Wednesday, July 24, with Melinda French Gates on her new sequence on YouTube, Moments That Make Us.
Chatting with why some interpret their relationship as one thing greater than platonic, Winfrey mentioned, “I feel we’ve shared just about all the pieces and I must say, it wasn’t even a matter of navigation.”
“You already know, for years, folks used to say we had been homosexual, and hear, we had been up in opposition to that without end,” she continued. “And folks nonetheless might imagine it.”
King then chimed in and shared how the lesbian rumors impacted her private life.
“I used to say Oprah, ‘You gotta do a present on this, as a result of it’s laborious sufficient for me to get a date on Saturday evening with folks pondering we’re homosexual,’” the CBS Mornings anchor quipped. “As a result of if we had been homosexual, we’d let you know!”
Winfrey went on to say that she believes many individuals suppose they’re homosexual as a result of they “aren’t used to seeing ladies with this sort of fact bond.”
Winfrey and King met 50 years in the past whereas working collectively at Baltimore information station WJZ-TV. The pair grew to become quick pals after Winfrey let King crash at her place throughout a serious snowstorm.
Winfrey additionally mentioned that she and Gayle’s friendship works as a result of “Gayle is happier, not pleased, however happier for me for any form of success or victory or problem I get via than I’m for myself.”
“And I really feel as pleased as she does — I can’t be happier than, can’t surpass Gayle,” the Oscar winner added. “You can’t out-happy her. I’m equally as pleased for her.”
The media mogul defined that, from her standpoint, friendships can’t work “with anyone who has a touch of jealousy about something that you simply’re doing — actually about your success or your being celebrated.”
The rumors initially baffled King as a result of she by no means thought her friendship with Winfrey was distinctive, saying, “I simply assumed everyone had a extremely good buddy.”
“I simply assumed each lady – possibly not for males – however I simply assumed each lady had at the least one.”
The pair additionally identified that honesty is a key element of their friendship, particularly provided that many individuals are vulnerable to flatter Winfrey, given her movie star standing.
“In Oprah’s life, everyone is at all times very flattering and is at all times very agreeable with issues that she says,” King advised French Gates. “And typically I’ll simply go, ‘That’s simply not true. Your hair doesn’t look good.’”
“We’ve each executed that,” they added.
This isn’t the primary time Winfrey and King have denied rumors that they’re homosexual.
In 2006, Oprah took to the pages of her O Journal to handle the incessant hypothesis.
“I perceive why folks suppose we’re homosexual,” Winfrey wrote. “There isn’t a definition in our tradition for this sort of bond between ladies. So I get why folks must label it – how are you going to be this shut with out it being sexual?”
“How else are you able to clarify a stage of intimacy the place somebody at all times loves you, at all times respects you, admires you?”
Winfrey would once more say she shouldn’t be homosexual in a 2010 interview with Barbara Walters.
“I’m not lesbian,” Oprah advised Walters. “I’m not even form of lesbian.”
On the time, she mentioned that the chatter about her sexual identification “irritates” her as a result of “it should imply anyone should suppose I’m mendacity.”
“That’s not the way in which I run my life,” Oprah defined.
