On Wednesday, July 24, Winfrey, 70, and King, 69, appeared on Melinda French Gates’ Moments That Make Us series.

The couple had an open conversation about their aging experiences, life lessons, and the value of female friendship.

While reminiscing on their longtime connection, Winfrey addressed the long-running allegation that she and the mother of two were romantically involved.

“I think we’ve shared pretty much everything, and I would have to say, it wasn’t even a matter of navigation,” she remarked during the YouTube interview.

“For years, people said we were gay, and we were always up against that. People may still believe so.”

King, a CBS Mornings anchor, stated, “I used to tell Oprah, ‘You should do a program on this because it’s difficult enough for me to get a date on Saturday night with people thinking we’re homosexual. If we were gay, we would come out to you.”

Winfrey, who has been in a relationship with Stedman Graham since 1986, continued by saying she thinks the suspicions started because people weren’t used to seeing women share such a close bond.

“One of the things I used to think was that people weren’t accustomed to seeing women with this kind of truth bond,” she says.

“I believe our friendship has worked because Gayle is happier for me than I am for myself when I achieve success, win, or overcome a hurdle.

“And I’m just as pleased as she is; I couldn’t be happier than Gayle.” You can’t out-happy her. I’m equally pleased for her… There is no suggestion of envy about anything.”

King concluded the discussion by stating that ‘everyone’ should have at least one terrific’ buddy in their lives.

The two first became friends in the late 1970s while working together at the Baltimore-area news station WJZ-TV.

Winfrey, a 22-year-old news anchor at the time, offered the University of Maryland-educated King, who was then 21, a place to stay during a significant snowfall.

“We ended up talking all night long,” the Mississippi native explained to People in 2022. “We’ve been friends ever since.”

In 2006, King told The Oprah Magazine that she had ‘never met’ someone like her pal, while Winfrey said they bonded because they were both ‘the odd girl out’.

“We didn’t fit into everybody else’s perception of what it’s like to be a black girl,” stated the woman.

“But we still felt very pleased to be Black.” So to meet another Black female like her was amazing!”