Gayle King has opened up about the backlash she faced after bringing up Kobe Bryant's 2003 rape case during an interview with his friend Lisa Leslie. This past weekend, King had a conversation with her best friend Oprah at the final stop of her 2020 Vision: Your Life in Focus tour in Denver. She told Oprah that her the entire situation was "very painful."
According to People, she said, “I have moved on. Is there a scab? Yeah. But I have moved on.” She continued, “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."
During their conversation, Winfrey also pointed out that the “good people” who remained silent throughout the backlash also contributed to the pain of the experience. She said, “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 added, “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.”
Oprah then told Gayle, “I love that you said through it all you never questioned who you were." Gayle replied, “No, I absolutely didn’t, Oprah."
Oprah’s full interview with Gayle King will air on Wednesday, (March 11th) at 8 PM ET as part of WW’s Wellness Wednesday Series on Oprah’s Facebook Channel.