That Famous Friendship: Oprah & Gayle

Photos of the New Year’s Eve party at Oprah Winfrey‘s house have been showing up all over the Internet in the past few weeks, and of course Gayle King appeared in many of them. The well-documented friendship between these two world-famous women has thrived over the decades.

In one of our earliest LOF posts, I shared my experience as an audience member at a taping of Oprah’s talk show many years ago with five of my college besties. That was back when Oprah’s show was at the height of its popularity. Little did the six of us know that the bonding experience we had in Oprah’s audience at the end of our time together at college would be just one of many legendary (to us!) outings that we’ve continued to have together in the years since graduation.

The photo of this same group of six at the top of this post was taken at a Northwestern reunion a few years ago on the steps of the house we lived in as college seniors. For kicks, you can compare/contrast with the photo at the top of our original Oprah/Gayle post. In both photos, can’t you just see the love? I won’t tell you how many years have gone by between the two photos, but I will say that I’m proud of the way our crew has nurtured our lasting friendship, which still means so much to us after all of these years.

That brings me back to Oprah & Gayle. Many admiring fans have wondered how these two incredibly busy and talented women have managed to stay so close for so long. I think one of the reasons their enduring friendship has captured our interest is that we are far more accustomed to seeing breakup stories and negativity in the press.

Right after New Year’s, I stumbled on a brief New York Times Podcast in which Oprah and Gayle discuss their long-time friendship. One of the pearls I took away from this interview was their contention that jealousy never comes into play between them. In other words, they understand that they each have many other strong relationships in their lives, and they support them. It also means that they celebrate each other’s successes.

Feel free to listen for yourself to see what you take away from this discussion about a friendship for the ages, and let us know your favorite insight!