Daily US Times, California: Legendary TV host Oprah Winfrey was in tears while she was defending her long time best friend Gayle King, another TV host.
Gayle King, ‘CBS This Morning’ host is facing a lot of criticism after the network posted a clip of her asking former basketball player Lisa Leslie about rape allegations made against the late NBA star Kobe Bryant.
Winfrey, who appeared on ‘Today’ show with Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager and was talking about the backlash against her BFF.
She started choking up, said: “She is not doing well. She is not doing well because she now has death threats and has to now travel with security. She is feeling very much attacked.”
Gayle King has been heavily criticized for asking Leslie about rape allegations made against Kobe Bryant.
The legendary NBA player and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna were part of a group of nine people who were killed last month in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California.
King also expressed her anger to her network and accused CBS of releasing the interview footage ‘out of context’. She said she felt “salacious”.
Winfrey, King’s decades long friend backed her on Friday.
Winfrey said ”She’s not doing well and feels that she was put in a really terrible position, because that interview had already ran and in the context of the interview, everyone seemed fine, including Lisa Leslie.”
Winfrey acknowledged that why people are outraged about the footage but added that King “hasn’t slept in two days.”
“Anybody can criticize anything, but the misogynistic vitriol to the point where it is dangerous to be in the streets alone …”, She said.
“Because it’s not just the people who are attacking. It’s the other people who feel like they can take that message and do whatever they want.”
Amid huge controversy and backlash on the internet, CBS issued a statement on Thursday saying that King “conducted a thoughtful, wide-ranging interview” with Leslie and that the clip that was posted “did not reflect the nature and tone of the full interview.”
A spokesman of the network said, “We are addressing the internal process that led to this and changes have already been made.”