Gayle King has revealed that she had an opportunity to take over Oprah Winfrey's talk show but she turned it down for the sake of her children. During an interview of Drew Barrymore's The Art Of the Interview, she said, “It would be great for me, it’d be really great for me. But that wouldn’t be fair to them. Oprah was talking about giving the show up because she wanted to go into acting. So her plan was, you move to Chicago and we’ll incorporate you in the show, so at the end of the year, I can sort of pass the baton, and I was really…imagine a huge opportunity. I was really excited about that. And the kids were, you know, we were divorced so they were still young and then I realized that that wouldn’t be fair to them.”
She continued, “So in the end, I just decided to not take her up on that offer. But favorite daughter, Kirby, favorite son, Will, their wellbeing to me was more important than whatever career opportunity I could have had at the time, and I don’t regret that.” (The Jasmine Brand)