Gayle King has finally shared her thoughts about the backlash she received after her controversial interview with former WNBA star Lisa Leslie.
During Oprah’s “2020 Vision: Your Life in Focus Tour,” King sat down with her best friend and revealed the emotional ups and downs she faced during that period.
“I have moved on,” King told Winfrey. “Is there a scab? Yeah. But I have moved on.”
King said the ordeal forced her to learn from the experience.
“I put on my game face and my big girl pants because I never lost sight of who I was, what I believe I am and my intention. I’ve never lost sight of that. But it certainly was a learning curve, and it was very painful,” she said.
Oprah chimed in, taking aim at those who were silent after King faced backlash from Snoop Dogg.
“In every circumstance, I think this is something for us to remember,” Oprah said. “It’s not the people who are being mean, it’s not the badness, it’s not the vitriol that’s being put into the world, but it’s the good people who remain silent that becomes so hurtful.”
King added that humanity should always be maintained when disagreements occur.
“I think we can disagree politically, we can disagree socially if you want to, but I just think humanity should prevail always,” King said. “I think we still have to figure out a way to navigate that with each other. That we can disagree, and you can be mad at me even, but you can’t speak to me the way I was spoken to and threatened.”
The online chaos began after King’s interview with Leslie following Kobe Bryant’s untimely death. King appeared to pressure Leslie to respond to questions about rape allegations against Bryant in 2003. Snoop responded by lashing out at King and calling her a “b—-.”
Snoop used social media to issue a public apology to King.
“When you’re wrong, you gotta fix it,” Snoop said via Instagram on Feb. 13. “So with that being said, Gayle King, I publicly tore you down by coming at you in a derogatory manner based off of emotions, me being angry at the questions that you asked. Overreacted, should have handled it way different than that. I was raised better than that.”
On Feb. 14, King returned the love in a statement released on “CBS This Morning.”
“I accept the apology and understand the raw emotions caused by this tragic loss,” King wrote. “I’m deeply sorry that the questions I asked added to that pain. That was never my intention. As a journalist, it is sometimes challenging to balance doing my job with the emotions and feelings during difficult times. I don’t always get it perfect, but I’m constantly striving to do it with compassion and integrity.”
King never apologized to Leslie or Bryant’s family, however, as some on social media pointed out.
