TV personality Gayle King has received death threats after a clip from her interview with basketball star Lisa Leslie regarding the late Kobe Bryant went viral.
TV personality Oprah Winfrey claimed King has since received death threats during Friday’s episode of the “Today” show with Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager.
King originally received backlash after “CBS This Morning” shared a clip from a long-form video with Leslie about Bryant’s legacy. The clip focused on part of the interview where King questioned Leslie on Bryant’s dismissed sexual assault case. Critics of the clip claimed King was being disrespectful towards Bryant’s family.
“She is not doing well,” Winfrey said. “May I say, she is not doing well because she now has death threats and have to now travel with security. She’s feeling very much attacked.”
“It was only because somebody at the network put up that clip, and I can see how people would obviously be very upset if you thought Gayle was trying to press to get an answer from Lisa Leslie,” she added. (RELATED: Snoop Dogg Goes After Gayle King For Mentioning Kobe Bryant’s Dismissed Sexual Assault Case)
King shared a video Thursday morning of herself discussing the moment on Instagram.
“I’ve been up reading the comments about the interview I did with Lisa Leslie about Kobe Bryant, and I know that if I had only seen the clip that you saw, I’d be extremely angry with me too,” King said in the video. “I am mortified. I am embarrassed and I am very angry.”
CBS issued a statement of its own Thursday.
“Gayle conducted a thoughtful, wide-ranging interview with Lisa Leslie about the legacy of Kobe Bryant,” CBS said in the statement. “An excerpt was posted that did not reflect the nature and tone of the full interview. We are addressing the internal process that led to this and changes have already been made.”
