Gayle King addresses decades-old rumors about her relationship with Oprah Winfrey

Gayle King addressed the persistent rumors that she and best friend Oprah Winfrey are secretly in a lesbian relationship.

"It used to really bother me," King told Alex Cooper on her "Call Her Daddy" podcast. "I was recently divorced and the National Enquirer did a story about ‘that's the reason for the divorce because they're secretly gay.’"

She explained, "Number one, if we were gay, we would tell you because believe me, there's nothing wrong with it. It’s just I prefer a man. I prefer a man."

King said she told Winfrey, "You've got to say something on your show because it's hard enough for me to get a date on a Saturday night and now people think I'm a lesbian. You've got to say something."

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But the billionaire mogul told her, "No, we should just leave it be."

They argued back and forth, but Winfrey insisted, "Leave it alone."

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"‘Well, that's fine for you to say. You have somebody. I don't,’" she said she told Winfrey. "So, it used to really bother me and now even today there's still people that say, ‘Well, you know, the truth is…’ I don't care. I've now gotten to the point in my life that very few things get to me because, you know, when you go on social media, it is an accelerator on hate. As long as I feel good about what I'm doing, the people I respect and trust are OK with it … Otherwise, you'll drive yourself nuts. So now I really don't care."

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When the "noise gets too much," however, King said she feels like she wants to at least "say my piece" so she can be on the record about whatever the issue is.

"But, most of the time I just I'm not going to," she added.

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Still, she said she doesn’t want to hide from the paparazzi like "some criminal" if there’s buzz around her that she doesn’t want to talk about, so she explained that she’ll walk out where they are instead of being secreted out the back and just not give a comment on the matter.

"I don't want to look like I'm running from something when I know I haven't done anything wrong," she explained.

King and Winfrey have been friends for 50 years, since they met while both working at the same local Baltimore station at the start of their careers.

King was married to attorney William Bumpus from 1982 until 1983, divorcing him after he had an affair, and Winfrey has been in a long-term relationship with businessman Stedman Graham since the ‘80s.