Gayle King has managed to keep her love life out of the headlines for more than two decades, but that could all change if and when she finds her Mr. Right.
The veteran journalist recently indulged “The Pivot” hosts in a candid conversation, where she divulged what her experience has been like with dating as well as the type of man who can pique her curiosity.
She explained that “what’s difficult is that people say, ‘Oh, you’re so intimidating,’” and assume that they are competing with what she does for herself and her enduring friendship with billionaire mogul Oprah Winfrey.
“My thing is, it’s not a matter of competing. … You want somebody who has a sense of humor, who’s very secure, who’s not intimidated by whatever all of this is, that just sees you for you,” added King.
King did, however, disclose that when it comes to catching her eye, a man has to have a few specific things going for him. “I really am attracted to men of color. I just am. I love how a Black man says motherf—king baby. Nobody says it like y’all. … It’s just the way that it’s said. I don’t even know how to explain it to you,” she said between laughter. “I love how they say, ‘Hey, baby’ … and then how they say motherf—ker.”
“Sometimes a well-delivered curse word is very intelligent to me.” @GayleKing
— Pivot Podcast (@thepivot) January 23, 2024
Dating in today’s world isn’t easy, even harder when you are Gayle King…@Realrclark25 @OfficialCrowder @FredTaylorMade are getting all the scoop today on The Pivot!https://t.co/AE04yFkNQv pic.twitter.com/j0XhBfEnJC
King went on to give examples of the different ways a man can say ‘motherf—king baby.’ “It could be a term of endearment, or it could be ‘I’m really pissed.’ But there’s something about the way a Black says it. I’m just attracted to that,” she stated.
However, Gayle clarified that she doesn’t necessarily want a man with a potty mouth who will curse at her all day. “Sometimes a well-delivered curse word is very intelligent to me,” she told the hosts.
As for the other things Gayle King looks for in a man, the “CBS Mornings” co-host rounded out her list with kindness, someone who can go to the backyard barbecue and the White House, intelligence, and proper grammar.
Here’s a look back at her relationship history:
Gayle’s only marriage to Connecticut Assistant Attorney William Bumpus ended disastrously in 1993.
King has long claimed that she caught her ex-husband in bed with another woman, whom she believed to be a friend up until that point, on June 24, 1990. They had been married for 11 years and shared two children, daughter Kirby and son Will. “I was married to a cheater. I went to marital counseling. I have been divorced since 1993, so I’m all healed and everything. I have worked it out. I’m not bitter. I’m OK,” she reportedly once said.
She’s open about her list of evolving deal-breakers when dating.
In 2019, while guest hosting “The Real,” she revealed that teeth, in particular real teeth, are a big deal to her. The 69-year-old also expressed a strong opposition to smoking. Though her list once included tattoos and piercings, she said, “I now see that tattoos have become very mainstream. I used to be very judgmental about it, like “oh, biker, criminal,'” said the editor-at-large of Oprah Daily.
She was linked to U.S. Senator Cory Booker between 2010 and 2014
The duo sparked relationship rumors after attending a White House dinner together. Speculation that they were dating continued as they were spotted together at public events throughout 2014. Booker, however, denied they were more than friends. “On my lowest days, she’s the one that picks me up and calls me, checks in on me, she’s been an incredible friend — that’s it,” he told “Extra” in 2013.
She now confirms that a suitor is single before she agrees to date them
The Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism recipient had a blunder of a dating experience years prior when she learned that the man she had been seeing was still married and living with his supposed estranged wife.
During a 2017 episode of the “Harry” talk show, hosted by Harry Connick Jr., she explained, “I’m out to dinner and he’s talking, and then he said something about ‘my wife’ and I said, ‘Wait, wait, wait, your wife? You have a wife?’ He goes, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘Does she know you’re here?’ He said, ‘But, we’re separated.’ I said, ‘Oh, you’re getting a divorce.’ He said, ‘No, we’re separated, we live in the same house, it hasn’t been good for a really long time.’ And I was like, ‘Check, please, I know that story.’”
She has no interest in joining the dating app scene.
King admitted that if she could join a dating app anonymously, only then would she entertain the idea of seeking out a potential partner through digital means. “I don’t know, I don’t know. I wish I was brave enough to do it,” she told Drew Barrymore on the actress’s talk show in 2021. “I prefer to meet somebody through a friend of a friend of a friend … or you meet somebody somewhere.”
