NEWSGayle King 'Never Sees Herself' in Oprah Winfrey's 'Shadow' Despite TV Stars Being Pitted Against Each Other: 'I Had My Own Life'
Gayle King sees herself as independent from fellow TV personality Oprah Winfrey.
May 27 2026, Published 11:59 a.m. ET
Gayle King doesn’t feed into any comparisons others make between her and Oprah Winfrey.
During the Wednesday, May 27, episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, King, 71, discussed her 50-year friendship with the fellow media personality, whom she never saw as her competitor.
Host Alex Cooper asked how there is no “jealousy” between the two ladies despite being “pitted against each other.”
Gayle King guest-starred on 'Call Her Daddy.'
“Well, my thing is this, Alex, I say I never see myself in her shadow. I always say I see myself in her light. And I do mean that. I see myself in her light,” King insisted. “I have never, not once thought, ‘God, I wish I could be her. I think I could do what she does,’ because I don't believe that.”
Gayle King and Oprah Winfrey have been friends for 50 years.
The 71-year-old pointed out how she and Winfrey are different people at their core.
“I love people, I love lights, camera, action. And Oprah's very fine sitting at home with a book,” she explained. “I can remember in Chicago, Princess Diana was in town, Princess Diana, a private party. I called to say, ‘What are you wearing?’ She goes, ‘I'm not going’ I go, ‘You're not going?’ She goes, ‘No, I have this, this.’ I mean, I would've trampled little children and I've been invited to something like that.”
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Gayle King insisted she and Oprah Winfrey have different personalities.
King continued, “I was in Connecticut, she's in Chicago. So I called to say, ‘What are you wearing? What time?’ Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. She goes, ‘No, you know, I have X, Y, and Z to do.’ That is not how I live. If I have a once in a lifetime experience, and that is a once in a lifetime experience, except later on, she did have a private lunch with Princess Diana at the palace back in the day. So there's, that's called flex.”
Gayle King said she is 'happier' for Oprah Winfrey more than 'she is for herself.'
The CBS News anchor disagreed with Winfrey, 72, in that particular instance but still respects her choices.
“I'm not passing up once-in-a-lifetime experiences. I get that. But I'm happier for her sometimes than she's for herself. And I had my own life too,” she asserted.
Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King Admitted People Thought They Were Gay
Gayle King doesn't see Oprah Winfrey as competition.
In July 2024, as part of Melinda French Gates' “Moments That Make Us” interview series, Winfrey and King gushed over their friendship.
"I think we've shared pretty much everything and I would have to say, it wasn't even a matter of navigation," the former host of The Oprah Winfrey Show said. "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.”
"I used to say to 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,'" King joked. "Because if we were gay, we'd tell you!"
