During Friday’s appearance on Today, Oprah Winfrey opened up about the backlash against her friend Gayle King, surrounding the Kobe Bryant controversy, and she ended up shedding tears.
“She is not doing well,” Winfrey told CNN as she began to tear up. “because she now has death threats and has to now travel with security. She is feeling very much attacked.”
Since asking that sensitive Kobe Bryant question, King has been hugely criticized and even threatened by Bryant devotees.
In Or Out of Context?
Soon after the death of Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter who died in a helicopter crash last month, King asked former basketball player Lisa Leslie about the sexual assault allegations made against Bryant.
It appeared distasteful that King would bring up such a sensitive and controversial topic so soon after the tragedy.
According to King, the clip her CBS This Morning bosses released “did not reflect the nature and tone of the full interview.”
In spite of all the slander against King, Oprah backed up her friend.
Oprah Supports
[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/HodaAndJenna/status/1225802679630356481?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1225802679630356481&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.etonline.com%2Foprah-winfrey-cries-over-gayle-kings-kobe-bryant-interview-backlash-she-is-not-doing-well-141090[/EMBED_TWITTER]While Winfrey understands why people are upset, she urges fans not to judge too quickly.
“Anybody can criticize anything, but the misogynistic vitriol to the point where it is dangerous to be in the streets alone ...” Winfrey said.
“Because it's not just the people who are attacking. It's the other people who feel like they can take that message and do whatever they want.”
Snoop Snubs
EOnline reports that the singer recently posted a now-viral video on Instagram slamming King:
“How dare you try to tarnish my motherf--king homeboy's reputation, punk motherf--ker?” he continued. “Respect the family and back off, bitch, before we come get you.”
When fans assumed he was threatening King, Snoop assured fans he wasn’t in a new Instagram video, saying:
“When I said what I said, I spoke for the people who felt like Gayle was very disrespectful towards Kobe Bryant and his family. Now with that being said, what'd I look like want some harm to come to a 70-year-old woman? I was raised way better than that. I don't want no harm to come to her, I didn't threaten her.”