Oprah Joked That Gayle King Should Take Her Husband Back After Gayle Caught Him In Bed W/ Her Friend: I Feel Like I Was Dragged Through This Divorce!

Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King

Oprah Joked That Gayle King Should Take Her Husband Back After Gayle Caught Him In Bed W/ Her Friend: I Feel Like I Was Dragged Through This Divorce!

Gayle King’s professional life has been in the spotlight, and now she’s recalling a pivotal moment in her personal life. She dished on that time she found her then-husband, William Bumpus, in bed with a friend after coming home from a trip with their two children: Kirby, 33, and William, Jr., 32.

While Gayle King filed for divorce in 1993, after tying the knot in 1982, she and her best friend Oprah Winfrey recalled how she considered staying with him.

Oprah Winfrey joked,

“At one point she was going to get back together with her husband and I said, please do. Because I feel like I have been dragged through this divorce.”

Gayle King pointed out,

“You know when you have a friend and you tell them every detail…And she kept saying to me, you shouldn’t. It’s a mistake. It’s a mistake. Finally, she said, ‘Please get back with him. And I will send a moving truck.’ And I said to her, ‘Well, you don’t understand because you don’t have children.’ He was on his knees and he was crying. And you said, ‘Mm-hmm. That doesn’t mean anything.’ I go, ‘You just don’t understand.’ So she said, ‘Please get back with him!’ And I did.”

Gayle King, Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey said she told Gayle King to get back with him, but warned her it wouldn’t last. Gayle King said,

“And I thought that was mean.”

Gayle King said when she got back with him, she tried to explain to their kids why he wouldn’t be around.

“What had happened was — (laughter) — what had happened was we had moved into one house and another and I did say that ‘Daddy has to go into the other house because there’s a burglar. And daddy’s gonna help catch the burglar. So he’s not gonna be here for a while.'”

“And then — then Will said to me later, three weeks later, ‘Has daddy caught the burglar yet?’ I go, ‘No, he’s still trying. He’s still trying.’ Because I couldn’t bring myself to tell them that we were getting a divorce. Now, I have to say, I’m surprised that you said that you had never heard that story. Because, Oprah, at the time you said, ‘That’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard.’”

Gayle King, Oprah Winfrey

“He wasn’t expecting to see me, and I wasn’t expecting to see her.”

“I did. I did have a clue. The clue was when I was at your house and the phone rang, wasn’t that a clue? The phone rang and the woman on the other end asked to speak to her husband. I happened to answer the phone, and when her husband gets to the phone he says no one is there. Now I ain’t stupid. Someone was there. And asked to speak to him.”