Gayle King Shares What Best Friend Oprah Winfrey Told Her After Controversial Blue Origin Space Flight – AOL.com
2025-04-25T17:47:56Z
Winfrey shed a few tears as she watched King blast off into space with an all-female crew on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket on April 14
Gayle King always has the support of her best friend Oprah Winfrey — even after returning to Earth from her all-female space flight.
The CBS Mornings anchor, 70, revealed what the legendary media mogul, who notably got emotional while watching King blast off to space on April 14, told her as soon as she completed her Blue Origin flight.
“She was so welled up [with tears],” King recalled in an interview with E! News at the Time100 Gala in New York City on Thursday, April 24, adding, “I know she said at one point [that] she was proud of me.”
She added that people had seen Winfrey crying on the broadcast and “said, ‘Oh, she’s so worried. She thinks something’s gonna happen,’ ” but that wasn’t further from the truth.
“That wasn’t it at all. She was crying because she knew what it took for me to do that, and so when I came [back] she was saying, ‘I’m so proud of you. You did that and I’m so proud of you,’ ” King shared.
“This is the thing, she always said I was gonna be okay. And Oprah knows things,” she jokingly added.
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King instantly went viral after she looked nervous while walking on the platform and ringing the bell just before the flight. She shared in a press conference back on Earth that she made that face because she “was so afraid” at “that moment.”
Yet, reflecting on the 11-minute trip, King later said, “I really am proud of me because I never in a gazillion years thought I could do this.” She also fired back when asked by PEOPLE to respond to the criticism surrounding the trip, saying, “anybody that’s criticizing it doesn’t really understand what is happening here.”
A handout photo made available by Blue Origin shows Gayle King (L), American television personality, reacting as she exits Blue Origin’s New Shepard NS-31 rocket following a short mission into orbit after taking off from Launch Site One in Van Horn, Texas, USA, 14 April 2025. HANDOUT/BLUE ORIGIN HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
But now that she has conquered one of her biggest fears, King said she hopes to cross off another big item off her bucket list. She told PEOPLE at Thursday night’s gala that “getting married” was next on her list.
She was previously married to William Bumpus from 1982 to 1993, and they share daughter Kirby Bumpus, 38, and son William Bumpus Jr., 37. Since their split, she has been looking for romance, sharing on The Tamron Hall Show that she was open to dating someone younger but not “somebody I could have given birth to.”
The journalist said she was looking for a partner who would support her in life and lift her up. She explained, “You want somebody who celebrates you, who is excited for you, who is very comfortable in their own skin.”
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