Gayle King's Ex-Husband William Bumpus Apologizes After She Recalls Walking in on Him Cheating with Her Friend
Gayle King's Ex-Husband William Bumpus Apologizes After She Recalls Walking in on Him Cheating with Her Friend
Kimberlee SpeakmanThu, May 28, 2026 at 3:48 PM UTC
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William Bumpus; Gayle King
Credit: William Bumpus/Instagram; Call Her Daddy/YouTube
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William Bumpus shared a statement apologizing to his ex-wife Gayle King "for the pain I caused decades ago"
King recounted on the Call Her Daddy podcast May 27 how she caught Bumpus cheating on her with a friend
"I respect her right to tell her story, and that’s where I’ll leave it," he said
Gayle King's ex-husband William Bumpus is speaking out after the journalist recalled how she discovered him cheating on her.
Bumpus shared a statement to multiple outlets, including TMZ and Page Six, after King, 71, revealed on theCall Her Daddy podcast with host Alex Cooper on Wednesday, May 27, that she once caught him cheating on her with one of her friends.
"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,” Bumpus said in the statement, according to the outlets. “Those actions were mine. I have long owned them — including publicly in my own words in 2016, which still stand."
"Gayle has every right to share what was a painful chapter that changed the trajectory of our marriage and our family nearly 40 years ago. I respect her right to tell her story, and that’s where I’ll leave it,” he added.
Gayle King with her children, Kirby Bumpus and William Bumpus, Jr. at the Time 100 Gala in 2019.
Credit: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
Bumpus added that he remains “endlessly grateful to Gayle” for giving him their children, adding that she “supported me through getting my Yale Law degree.” He also revealed that it was King’s decision to co-parent “from the very beginning,” which is a “testament to our shared commitment” to their children and grandchildren.
“The love and camaraderie we forged in that work have carried us all these years,” the attorney said. "Nearly four decades later, that commitment has only deepened, and Gayle and I remain in a good place. She recently sent warm wishes to Poet, my teenage daughter, on her 16th birthday, which meant a great deal to us both.”
Bumpus, who was married to King from 1982 to 1993, admitted he had made some mistakes in the past, in part due to not “fully” appreciating the public nature of the CBS Mornings co-host’s work.
“As a private person by nature, I will admit that during our marriage I did not fully appreciate Gayle’s public life — I wanted ours to be more private, and that was something I wrestled with, and no reflection on her true talent and abilities,” Bumpus explained. “I am proud to have had a front-row seat to Gayle’s remarkable success, and I remain a genuine admirer and fan."
"I continue to work at being the best version of myself," he added, highlighting the "friendship, encouragement and support of Gayle over the years." He concluded that his "focus" is on "my family, on my clients and on the work ahead."
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PEOPLE reached out to reps for Bumpus for comment.
During King's Call Her Daddy interview, she discussed several topics, including how she caught Bumpus in an affair with one of her friends at the time after returning home from a canceled flight.
“He comes flying out of the room. He's got a towel on and he goes, ‘You can't come in,' ” King recalled, saying her reaction was, “What do you mean I can't come in? What are you talking about?”
Gayle King on the 'Call Her Daddy' podcast.
Credit: Call Her Daddy/YouTube
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She said her ex told her that “someone's here” and she eventually found one of her friends “cowering behind the door in my towel.” She said she had asked her nanny to get her kids away from the house, so they didn't witness the betrayal.
King said she was desperate to keep others from knowing what was going on, saying, “Because I was thinking, ‘The kids are here. I don't want anybody to know.' That was my main thought — I don't want anybody to know… I kept thinking, I don't want it to be a scene because they're little. They know this person.”
She said she and Bumpus reconciled but eventually called it quits for good in 1993 after she saw the kind of person she was turning into toward the end of their marriage: “I didn't like who I was. Who wants to live like that? I didn't want to be that person.”
After King publicly referenced Bumpus' affair in 2016, he responded in a statement to Page Six at the time, calling King a "great wife" and saying he "spent the last 26 years striving to be a better man and father."
“I have been haunted with this life-altering choice," he added at the time, in part. "Though I have dealt with this privately ... publicly apologize for the major transgression that dramatically changed all of our lives.”
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
