Gayle King, a TV celebrity, shared a personal experience on The Pivot Podcast about feeling “crushed” when a man she was dating requested a $4,000 loan to settle a “child support issue” and pay for furniture.
According to ET, King, who has been closest friends with Oprah Winfrey for decades, revealed that she and the nameless man had been dating for around two months when he requested financial assistance.
“I went for a date. “I was very excited about it,” the CBS Mornings host stated. “We’d been out about two months when he said he really needed to talk to me. He preferred a private conversation.He asked, ‘Do you think you could lend me $4,000?’ I am like, ‘Oh gosh.'”
King further stated that the loan request made her feel “crushed” because the man was “somebody who was making, you know, six figures, successful.” “And when I stated that, could you tell me what it’s for? He claimed it was for child support and to make a payment on some furnishings. [I thought] ‘Oh my god, this is only getting worse.'”
The 69-year-old admitted that while she eventually loaned the man the money, the incident had a severe impact on their relationship and caused her affections for him to change. She subsequently ended the connection.
King discussed her friend Oprah Winfrey’s reaction, stating, “God, I would have felt better if he had said $40,000.”
During the conversation, King also discussed how her growing celebrity influenced her dating life. “What’s difficult is that people say, ‘Oh, you’re so intimidating,'” she told ET. “Someone once told me, ‘Gayle, look at your shoes, bag, and coat. You are friends with Oprah! A guy sees it and says, ‘I can’t compete with that.'”
“But my point is that it’s not an issue of competition. “I’m not looking for someone to compete,” she clarified. “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.”
King also discussed the males she is drawn to. “I love how a Black man says’motherf**ker’ and ‘baby’…” “There’s something about the way a Black man says it that appeals to me,” she explained.
“They must have something else, though. What appeals to me the most is a sense of humor. Kindness is always effective with me.”
“I like to see how they interact with other people,” she said. “Someone you can take to the White House and the backyard barbecue, who fits in and is confident in their own skin. Intelligence is really important to me. Proper language is important to me, as is finding someone who can make you laugh.
King and Bill Bumpus, a Connecticut lawyer, divorced in 1993. Since then, little to no information regarding her romantic relationships has been made public. Even though their divorce was the result of Bumpus’ adultery, King described her former as a “great husband” when they were together.
“He had a problem with monogamy, which is never healthy in marriage. “Infidelity, just putting it out there, is never good,” she explained.