Gayle King Discusses ‘Painful’ Kobe Bryant Interview Backlash With Oprah Winfrey!
TheGrio.com, By Dawn Onley, Posted March 26th 2020
The ‘CBS This Morning’ host tells her best friend that she has ‘moved on,’ but still has ‘scabs’ lingering from the ordeal!
Gayle King said she has moved on from the public thrashing she received from rappers like Snoop Dogg and 50 Cent after she asked a question about Kobe Bryant’s past rape case during an interview with the NBA legend’s friend.
In a sit down with her bestie during the last stop of Oprah Winfrey’s “2020 Vision: Your Life in Focus Tour” this past Saturday, King said the aftermath of asking former WNBA star Lisa Leslie about the sexual assault case and its impact on Bryant’s legacy was “very painful” and left her with some scrapes.
However, King says she is forging ahead.
“I have moved on,” King, 65, told Winfrey, 66, reported PEOPLE, which obtained an advanced clip of the exchange. “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,” King added.
Bryant pleaded not guilty to felony sexual assault in 2003 after a 19-year-old Denver woman accused him of sexually assaulting her. Criminal charges against Bryant were later dropped, but a civil suit was settled out of court.
In the days after Bryant, his daughter, Gianna and seven other passengers were killed in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26, King interviewed Leslie on the full scope of Bryant’s legacy. CBS promoted the interview with the clip of King asking Leslie about Bryant’s rape case, which King slammed as “out of context” of her wide-ranging interview.
After the clip surfaced, Snoop Dogg, who was still mourning Bryant’s death, took to social media and posted a profanity-laced video directed at King for what he said was her insensitivity to Bryant’s widow, Vanessa, and their daughters. Snoop’s comments received backlash and were taken as a threat against King. The rapper later apologized and went on Jada Pinkett Smith’s Red Table Talk to further express his intentions.
In the PEOPLE clip from Winfrey’s Denver tour stop, the media mogul said what made matters worse for King was the “good people” who remained mum during her ordeal.
“In every circumstance, I think this is something for us to remember,” Winfrey said. “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.”
“I think we can disagree politically, we can disagree socially, if you want to, but I just think humanity should prevail always,” King added, according to PEOPLE. “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.”
Winfrey also commended King for not allowing the hardship to make her doubt herself.
“No, I absolutely didn’t, Oprah,” King replied, according to PEOPLE.
The duo also discussed their life-long friendship, navigating relationships, and their various careers.
Winfrey told King that she “never needed therapy” because she had King as a friend.
“We have talked about everything and nothing,” King replied. “You’ve never had therapy, but I’ve been to five therapists when I was married. And may I just say this? Nobody has been a better therapist than Oprah!”