Gayle King opened up about various rumors surrounding her in an appearance on Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy” podcast. Rumors of King dating Oscar-winning actress Oprah Winfrey began swirling a while ago. King addressed the rumors in the podcast, calling them false and deeply unsettling.

According to the Independent, King has been subject to various comments, claiming that King has had or is in a relationship with Winfrey. Alex Cooper grilled King on the topic as she began: “People literally to the point have made comments like, ‘There’s no way this isn’t a romantic relationship.’ Tell me how that feels when you guys have had to handle those headlines, handle those rumors.”

King answered the question, stating that the rumors used to “really bother” her till one point. The TV personality revealed how The National Enquirer published a story about King and her relationship with her husband. The two separated in 1993 after King found her husband cheating with another woman. However, the tabloid piece argued that the reason for the two’s divorce was actually because King was “secretly gay.”

However, this claim has since been debunked by King’s husband, William Bumpus, who issued a public apology to King in a conversation with TMZ. “My deepest apologies to Gayle, to our daughter Kirby and her husband, Virgil, to our son William and his wife, Elise, and to our three grandchildren, for the pain I caused decades ago,” Bumpus said. “Those actions were mine. I have long owned them — including publicly in my own words in 2016, which still stand.”

That said, Gayle King had her own take on being called a lesbian. “Number one, if we were gay, we would tell you because, believe me, there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s just, I prefer a man,” King said in the podcast, squashing the rumors. King has stated that, at the peak of the rumors, she even urged Oprah Winfrey, who has her own series of controversies, to debunk the rumors on her show. 

“You’ve got to say something on your show because it’s hard enough for me to get a date on a Saturday night, and now people think I’m a lesbian,” King said. However, she argued that the rumors no longer bother her. “Even today, there are still people that say, ‘Well, you know, the truth is…’” King said. “I don’t care. I’ve now gotten to the point in my life that very few things get to me. Because when you go on social media, it is an accelerator on hate.”