Gayle King received backlash from CBS Mornings viewers after using a gay slur on the air.
The remarks arrived during Friday’s episode, as she and her co-stars chatted with comedian Matteo Lane about his standup material and a new cookbook.
Gayle expressed excitement over having Lane on the show, calling him “so funny” after showing a clip of one of his standup jokes.
She mentioned his cookbook, Your Pasta Sucks, and the first chapter’s title: How to Cook Pasta like an Italian, Irish, Mexican Homosexual.
During the interview, Lane discussed his various tips for cooking pasta, including not using olive oil in the water and only using freshly made pasta for certain sauces.
However, things turned interesting when Gayle mentioned his standup and one of his jokes, using a gay slur.
Gayle said she hoped not to ‘get in trouble’ for slur on CBS Mornings
During part of the interview, Gayle King mentioned how Lane’s family seems to inspire a lot of his material, and noted that he embraces being gay and his homosexuality.
He mentioned that he possibly has 31 first cousins and shared why being in a big family helped him.
“I come from a large family where you have to have something funny to say or be opinionated to say, so you have to speak up,” Lane said.
“That’s what we did, so I was surrounded by cousins and being funny, so for me this felt very natural,” he said regarding his new cookbook.
After he’d finished talking about his family, Gayle wanted to move the interview in a different direction.
“Can we talk about the standup?” she said, looking over at co-host Nate Burleson.
“Can I just say one joke? I hope I don’t get in trouble,” Gayle said.
“Alright, Gayle, be careful,” Nate warned her.
“You do a riff about white women who have approached you and they said something about cooking and you said, ‘What in the f****try are you talking about?'” Gayle said, causing Lane to start laughing.
“I thought that was hilarious,” Gayle said as he kept laughing over what she said on TV.
Viewers and critics called out Gayle for using the gay slur on live TV
While CBS Mornings censored Gayle’s slur in the video above, it wasn’t during the live airing, as some video clips show it on social media. The NSFW remark didn’t sit well with some viewers and critics online, as commenters blasted Gayle for using the gay slur.
Many individuals expressed their thoughts about Gayle’s remarks on the social media platform X.
“If you have to preface quoting a joke by saying ‘I hope I don’t get in trouble,’ you probably should pick another joke to quote,” one individual commented on TMZ’s X post.
Another individual on X wrote, “So this is where we are in this country. Gayle King can just say ‘f****try’ and act like she doesn’t realize it’s a slur, and it’s totally fine. Girl until you come out of the closet with O, that ain’t your word.”
Due to their closeness, some individuals have previously speculated that Gayle has a private romantic relationship with Oprah Winfrey. In a New York Post article, the two have shut down the rumors, claiming they are best friends and would tell everyone if it was anything beyond that.
“We don’t talk like that anymore. She deserves to lose everything and then some,” another X commenter wrote regarding Gayle’s use of the slur.
Lane appeared to have no issues with Gayle retelling his joke using the slur, laughing about it, and praising her.
“I love you, Gayle King. It means exactly what you think it means,” Lane replied during the CBS Mornings interview.