Gayle King reacts to exhusband&x27;s &x27;surprising&x27; apology for cheating with her friend: &x27;That was a very painful time&x27; Kathleen PerriconeThu, May 28, 2026 at 10:01 PM UTC 0 Gayle King; her exhusband William BumpusCredit: Lester Cohen/Getty; William Bumpus/InstagramKey Points Gayle King is reacting to her exhusband&x27;s public apology for cheating on her eight years into their marriage. The CBS Mornings host admits she&x27;s "surprised" by the statement from William Bumpus, who took full accountability: "Those actions were mine.
Gayle King reacts to ex-husband's 'surprising' apology for cheating with her friend: 'That was a very painful time'
Kathleen PerriconeThu, May 28, 2026 at 10:01 PM UTC
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Gayle King; her ex-husband William Bumpus
Credit: Lester Cohen/Getty; William Bumpus/InstagramKey Points -
Gayle King is reacting to her ex-husband's public apology for cheating on her eight years into their marriage.
The CBS Mornings host admits she's "surprised" by the statement from William Bumpus, who took full accountability: "Those actions were mine."
"He didn’t say anything to me about it, but I’m very appreciative," King said on Thursday.
Time can heal all wounds, but sometimes so can a simple apology.
A day after Gayle King opened up to Call Her Daddy's Alex Cooper about the shocking moment she caught her cheating husband with her friend, William Bumpus expressed his remorse in a statement to TMZ.
"My deepest apologies to Gayle, to our daughter Kirby and her husband, Virgil, to our son William and his wife, Elise, and to our three grandchildren, for the pain I caused decades ago," the Connecticut-based attorney began his mea culpa. "Those actions were mine."
His sentiments reached King, who admits she was "surprised" by the public declaration, 36 years after she arrived home unexpectedly and caught Bumpus, her husband of eight years, with a woman she had considered a friend.
King with her daughter Kirby and son Will
Credit: Jim Spellman/Getty
"I did not know he was going to do it," the CBS Mornings host remarked to TMZ of the apology on Thursday, as she walked to an awaiting car. "When I got up this morning and read it, I was very, very surprised. He didn’t say anything to me about it, but I’m very appreciative."
King, who was in a chatty mood, joked to TMZ that she was caught off-guard by Bumpus' statement for multiple reasons.
“I was surprised that you guys found him," she admitted. Secondly, she was stunned "he was even talking because he never talks. So I was surprised, but I can also say I appreciated what he had to say. That was a very painful time."
King and Bumpus actually stayed together despite his indiscretion, but did eventually split in 1993 after she realized he was cheating again.
"Anyone who has been through it knows how painful it is," King told TMZ. "But I also know that you can go through it and get through it on the other side. This happened so long ago that we have both healed and we’ve both moved on. And the reason why I can talk about it so candidly is because it has been so much time that has passed. I’m in a really great place and so is he.”
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More so than the apology from Bumpus, "the thing that has touched me more than anything," King added, is how her revelation of being betrayed has resonated with other women who have experienced similar heartbreak. "It's a really big club and none of us want to be in it.”
In the Call Her Daddy interview, King confessed that she threatened to tell the other woman's husband, but Bumpus begged her otherwise. "'Don't call because they have a good marriage,'" she recalled him saying. "'They have a good marriage? The girl's pajama bottoms are in my bed.'"
Bumpus then left to take the woman to the train station, and that's when King called her best friend, Oprah Winfrey.
Oprah Winfrey and King in Paris last March
Credit: Swan Gallet/WWD via Getty
"Oprah goes, 'Let me get this straight. He left you there alone and went with her?' I know your mouth is open," King told Cooper. "And she said, 'Oh girl, you don't even know how bad this is.' And I'm going, 'Yeah, but he said they had a good marriage.'"
Winfrey eventually advised her heartbroken friend to pick up the phone. "She said, 'Well, call her husband.' I go, 'You think I should call?' [She said], 'Yes. Call.'"
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King did, but the wife had already gotten to her husband.
"He said, 'She told me you would be calling. She said that you came home early unexpected, and you drew the wrong conclusion. And she told me you would call and say that you thought they were having an affair.' Masterful. Isn't that masterful?"
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: "AOL Entertainment"
Source: Entertainment
Published: May 28, 2026 at 06:09PM on Source: PRIME TIME
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