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As if there’s anyone left on Earth who still thinks TV host Gayle King and Oprah Winfrey are lovers, the CBS anchorwoman is once again putting to rest long-standing rumors<\/a> surrounding their longtime friendship.<\/p>\n \u201cIt used to really bother me,” King told Alex Cooper on her Call Her Daddy podcast <\/a>on Wednesday. “I was recently divorced, and the National Enquirer did a story about [how] that\u2019s the reason for the divorce, because they’re secretly gay.”<\/p>\n King, who last year became only the second civilian Black woman to travel into space<\/a>, said the speculation deeply affected her, and she was bothered that her bestie refused to publicly shut down the rumors.<\/p>\n \u201cNumber one, if we were gay, we would tell you, because believe me, there\u2019s nothing wrong with it. It\u2019s just that I prefer a man,” said King, then repeated herself to make it clear: “I prefer a man.” <\/p>\n She was not just “bothered” Winfrey let the rumors keep flying however, King revealed she once begged Winfrey to directly address all that chatter about them being lesbians during an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show<\/a>, because she felt the gossip was affecting her dating life.<\/p>\n \u201cI used to say to Oprah, \u2018You gotta do a show on this, because it\u2019s hard enough for me to get a date on a Saturday night and now people think I\u2019m a lesbian, you\u2019ve gotta say something,\u2019\u201d King recalled.<\/p>\n Winfrey, according to King, felt that it was best not to give the rumors any attention. The TV icon encouraged her to \u201cjust leave it be.\u201d<\/p>\n