3 minutes
Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Oprah Winfrey says friend and fellow television
personality Gayle King has received death threats since her
controversial interview about late basketball star Kobe Bryant.
Winfrey, 66, said on Friday's episode of Today that King, 65, is "not
doing well" following backlash to her interview with WNBA star Lisa
Leslie about Bryant.

Winfrey teared up as she described how King has received death threats from fans of Bryant.
"She is not doing well," Winfrey said of King. "May I say, she is not
doing well, because she has now death threats and has to now travel with
security and she's feeling very much attacked."
King spoke to Leslie, a retired WNBA star, in an interview for CBS This
Morning following Bryant's death in January. King faced heavy backlash
after CBS promoted the interview with a clip that showed King asking
Leslie about the 2003 rape accusation against Bryant.
"She's not doing well, and she feels she was put in a really terrible
position, because that interview had already ran," Winfrey said of King.
"In the context of the interview, everyone seemed fine, including Lisa
Leslie."
"It was only because somebody at the network put up that clip," she
added. "I can see how people would obviously be very upset if you
thought that Gayle was just trying to press to get an answer from Lisa
Leslie."
Winfrey said King hasn't slept in "two days" because of the backlash,
and criticized the "misogynist vitriol" directed at her friend.
"Anybody can criticize anything, but the misogynist vitriol and the
attacking to the point where it is dangerous to be on the streets alone
because it's not just the people who are attacking. It's the people who
take that message and feel like they can do whatever they want to
because of it," Winfrey said.
King said in an Instagram video Thursday that her question to Leslie
about the Bryant sexual assault allegations was taken "out of context."
She said the full interview was a "wide-ranging" conversation about
Bryant's legacy.
"I'm mortified, I'm embarrassed, and I am very angry," King said.
"Unbeknownst to me, my network put up a clip from a very wide-ranging
interview, totally taken out of context. When you see it that way, it's
very jarring."
Los Angeles will hold a public memorial for Bryant and the eight other
people who died in a helicopter crash Jan. 26. The memorial will take
place Feb. 24 at the Staples Center.
Join Geezgo for free. Use Geezgo's end-to-end encrypted Chat with your Closenets (friends, relatives, colleague etc) in personalized ways.>>
Comments
Post a Comment