Gayle King on Kobe Bryant Controversy: ‘Is There a Scab? Yeah. But I Have Moved On’
Written by SOURCE on March 11, 2020
Over the weekend, Gayle King opened up about the fallout that resulted from her interview questions about Kobe Bryant. More on that below. To talk about this subject, King chose her best friend, Oprah, during the 2020 Vision: Your Life in Focus Tour.
“I have moved on,” King said, according to Yahoo. “Is there a scab? Yeah. But I have moved on.”
Winfrey said that, as King’s best friend, it was hard for her to watch. She also asked the journalist what she learned from being the subject of such ire.
“It rocked me,” King said, according to Vibe. “I always try to operate from [a place of] ‘do no harm.’ That was certainly my intention in doing that story and that interview and the intention certainly didn’t align with the impact of the fallout that happened from that.
“But what got to me was the vitriol and the vulgarity that was unleashed at me in ways that I couldn’t even understand where that was coming from. You may disagree with a story or the way I do a story, but… it’s just not fair or okay to be as vulgar and as hateful as what I experienced.”
The situation stemmed from an interview King conducted with WNBA legend Lisa Leslie. Specifically, questions that King asked Leslie about whether or not Kobe’s legacy was tarnished due to rape allegations against him from 2003. Around the time that interview was made public, King said that CBS used an out-of-context excerpt from the sit-down. In turn, CBS released a statement that said the clip wasn’t representative of the “thoughtful, wide-ranging interview,” that King conducted on that day.
After the backlash reached peak volumes of anger, King told Oprah that she “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.”
After the original interview aired, Snoop Dogg posted a message to his 40+ million Instagram followers calling King, among other things, “out of pocket.” He added, “respect the family and back off, bitch, before we come get you.” A few days later he said he didn’t threaten her, and then a few days after that he apologized. A day after said apology, King accepted.
Check out a clip of the King/Winfrey interview right here:
