Oprah Winfrey may be a billionaire media mogul, but her best friend and TV journalist Gayle King thinks she could have been a successful therapist.
King talked about how Winfrey supported her when she divorced her ex-husband, William Bumpus, during Tuesday’s episode of Brooke Shields’ podcast, “Now What? With Brooke Shields.”
“She is one of the best therapists ever,” King said about her longtime friend. “If she had a second career, it would be — honest to God, she’s one of the best therapists ever.”
King has spoken publicly about the time she caught Bumpus in bed with another woman in 1990. The couple divorced in 1993, and they share two children, Kirby Bumpus and William Bumpus Jr.
The “CBS This Morning” co-host told Shields that she initially only told Winfrey and her mother about her ex-husband’s infidelity.
“I knew I could trust them,” she said.
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King recalled the night she caught Bumpus cheating during a 2016 Vanity Fair interview.
When asked if there was a living person she most despised, the TV host mentioned the woman her husband had an affair with.
“‘Despise’ is a strong word,” she said. “I’m not a huge fan of the woman I caught naked with my now ex-husband on June 24, 1990, at 9:16 p.m.— but I don’t remember the details.”
In 2010, Winfrey described her tight bond and friendship with King during an interview with Barbara Walters.
“She is… the mother I never had. She is… the sister everybody would want,” she said. “She is the friend that everybody deserves. I don’t know a better person. I don’t know a better person.”