Gayle King isn’t holding back with her reaction to the public outcry around her whole Kobe Bryant controversy.
As you’ll no doubt recall, King held an interview with WNBA star Lisa Leslie in the days after Kobe’s death, and at one point the CBS This Morning host asked the basketball superstar about Kobe’s complicated legacy, considering his past sexual assault case. Viewers who saw the moment immediately lashed out at King, calling her insensitive — and much worse — in the ugly aftermath.
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Now, the longtime TV journalist is sharing her side of the story with this one, and it sounds like the threats and comments she received in response to the infamous Kobe question were nearly too much to handle. It only got worse when high-profile celebs like Snoop Dogg and 50 Cent jumped into the fray, sharing harsh words of their own for King. (Snoop later publicly apologized, for what it’s worth.)
Speaking beside longtime friend Oprah Winfrey at the mogul’s 2020 Vision: Your Life in Focus tour stop in Denver, Colorado over the weekend, King delivered her comments to Oprah and a crowd full of people. When Winfrey asked about how she possibly could’ve gotten over the ugly aftermath, the 65-year-old King was remarkably forthright in her comments:
“I have moved on. Is there a scab? Yeah. But I have moved on. I put on my game face and my big girl pants, because I never lost sight of who I was, what I believe I am, and my intention. I’ve never lost sight of that. But it certainly was a learning curve, and it was very painful.”
Wow… spoken like a true professional. She just keeps pushing forward!
Winfrey took a crack at the whole ordeal, pointing out that “good people” stood silent instead of doing the right thing to defend King. The longtime talk show host and billionaire media mogul added:
“In every circumstance, I think this is something for us to remember. It’s not the people who are being mean, it’s not the badness, it’s not the vitriol that’s being put into the world, but it’s the good people who remain silent that becomes so hurtful.”
King agreed with her good friend, visibly nodding on stage and following Oprah’s comments up with this thought:
“I think we can disagree politically, we can disagree socially, if you want to, but I just think humanity should prevail always. I think we still have to figure out a way to navigate that with each other. That we can disagree, and you can be mad at me even, but you can’t speak to me the way I was spoken to and threatened.”
Amen!!!
Related: Gayle King Reportedly Passed On Wendy Williams’ Tell-All Interview!
King and Winfrey, both classy as ever for taking the high road and offering up such wisdom and insight even after going through what she did. Good for her!
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[Image via Joseph Marzullo/WENN]
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