Oprah Winfrey on her Longtime Friendship with Gayle King: “We’ve always shared the same values”

Gayle King is joining her friend Oprah Winfrey on the cover of O, The Oprah Magazine for the very first time!

The longtime friends are celebrating their friendship on the cover of the September 2019 issue and here’s what Oprah has to say about her friend on Oprah Magazine.

“You may have heard me tell the story, which I’ve told often over the years: In the winter of 1976, when Gayle King was a production assistant at the Baltimore television station where I was coanchor of the evening news, a snowstorm prevented her from getting back home to the suburbs. We were colleagues, not friends, but I invited her to spend the night at my place. We sat up and talked till dawn and have been talking ever since. We’ve never lived in the same city, but we’ve always shared the same values,” Oprah said, about how they became friends.

“For years, people have marvelled at our friendship and sometimes misunderstood it. But anyone who has a soulful bond with a friend, a friend who would do anything for you, who revels in your happiness and is there to comfort you in your sadness, gets it exactly. In our friendship, they see their own connections. It’s why people often introduce their best friends to me as She’s my Gayle.”

Speaking on Gayle’s optimistic outlook towards life, she says;

“I’ll tell you this: No matter what glasses she’s actually wearing, she’s seeing the world through sunny-colored lenses. The boundless positive outlook; the more-is-more approach to necklaces; the love of a great burger, a warm doughnut, a cupcake with yellow frosting; the apparent familiarity with every pop/rap/country/R&B song on Apple or Spotify; the endless curiosity that’s my Gayle. And no matter how many ventures or adventures we undertake whatever life has to offer we’ll be in each other’s corner. Solid. Timeless. Forever”.

Oprah also clarified that Gayle has never been in the shadow of her success, but rather the light:

“Now that Gayle’s a shining star on CBS This Morning, people often ask her how she felt being in the shadow of my success. The truth is, she always felt not a shadow but the light. We couldn’t have remained friends if she’d perceived it as a shadow. I would have sensed that, and I wouldn’t have been able to be as open. A true friend can’t be jealous of you, or want to take advantage of you in any way”

Photo Credit: Oprah Magazine