Oprah Winfrey Gets Emotional While Responding to Gayle King’s Backlash Over Kobe Bryant Question: She’s Received Death Threats

Oprah Winfrey Gets Emotional While Responding to Gayle King’s Backlash Over Kobe Bryant Question: She’s Received Death Threats

Oprah Winfrey revealed Gayle King has received death threats this week.

Gayle King was hit with tons of criticism after she questioned Lisa Leslie about late NBA star Kobe Bryant’s sexual assault allegations. Kobe Bryant was accused of assaulting a 19-year-old hotel worker in 2003. The charges were later dropped.

Gayle King asked Lisa Leslie if the accusations against her complicated things for Leslie as a female.

After receiving tons of backlash, Gayle King explained the interview Thursday (Feb. 6).

Still, she continued to receive criticism from Bill Cosby, LeBron James, 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg and Matt Barnes.

And her best friend Oprah Winfrey teared up as she said Gayle King isn’t taking it well.

“She is not doing well. May I say she is not. She is not doing well because she now has death threats and now has to travel with security. She’s feeling very much attacked. You know, Bill Cosby is tweeting from jail, and 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.”

She continued,

“It was only because somebody at the network put up that clip, and I can see how people would obviously be very upset if you thought that Gayle was just trying to press to get an answer from Lisa Leslie… All things pass, she will be okay, but she hasn’t slept in two days.”

She spoke on the criticism against her friend and said,

“I think anybody can criticize anything. But the misogynist vitriol, and the attacking to the point where it is dangerous to be in the streets alone, because… it’s not just the people who are attacking. It’s the people who take that message and feel like they can do whatever they want to because of it.”

“I was on the phone with her this morning, I was on the phone with her last night, I was on the phone with her the night before. You stand in the gap. You try to be there for your friends. This is very hard because when you have social media, and the force of social media, and particularly people who didn’t see either interview making attacks… I think everybody has a right to have their opinion, but to do it with such vitriol is hate and meanness.”

Do you think the criticism against Gayle has gone too far?