Gayle King opened up about the devastating moment she caught her husband in bed with another woman. Speaking on the Call Her Daddy podcast with host Alex Cooper, the CBS Mornings anchor reflected on her life, career, and her legendary bond with Oprah Winfrey. King recalled when she discovered her now-ex-husband, William Bumpus, with a friend. Adding insult to injury, two toddlers were home with their nanny.
“I came home and caught him,” King began.
King recalled saying, “‘I can’t believe that you are here and that you are doing this. I can’t believe that you are doing this.’ And I even said, ‘I thought we were friends!’ It sounded so pitiful.”
After triggering the alarm, the police came to King’s residence. Being a popular local reporter, the police requested her autograph.
“I wanted to say, ‘Could you take out the trash?’ But I didn’t,” King told Cooper. “And I didn’t want them to know because it’s a type of thing that they screw up, but you’re thinking, ‘I don’t want anybody to know when I haven’t done anything wrong.’ I just wanted to get them in and out as quickly as possible.”
King shared how to protect her kids — daughter Kirby, now 40, and son Will, now 39 from their father’s affair. Also, she said that she thought about calling the other woman’s husband.
“She was married, and I said, ‘I’m calling him,’ her husband. And [Bumpus] goes, ‘Don’t call because they have a good marriage.’ [I said], ‘They have a good marriage? The girl’s pajama bottoms are in my bed,’” King recalled.
Instead, King called Oprah.
‘I called Oprah, and Oprah goes, ‘Let me get this straight. He left you there alone and went with her?’ I know your mouth is open,” King said. “And she said, ‘Oh girl, you don’t even know how bad this is.’ And I’m going, ‘Yeah, but he said they had a good marriage.’ Stupid.”
Although they tried to reconcile after the incident, King found out he was still cheating. They divorced in 1993.
“I would be out in the garage feeling the hood of the car to see if it was warm,” King said. ‘And I was going through his phone, and I thought, ‘I don’t wanna live like this,’”