Gayle King was married to ex-husband William Bumpus for 11 years before they decided to split.
King has been outspoken about her ex’s past infidelity, discussing the moment she caught him cheating with a friend in June 1990.
“I said, ‘I can’t believe that you are here and that you are doing this,’” King recalled during a May 2026 episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, telling host Alex Cooper that she sounded “so pitiful” when confronting Bumpus and her friend.
King caught them after coming home unexpectedly following a canceled flight. She was with their two kids, daughter Kirby and son William Jr.
“I was thinking, ‘The kids are here, I don’t want anybody to know,’” she recalled. “That was my main thought, ‘I don’t want anybody to know.’ That would not happen to me today.”
Gayle King Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
Initially, they went to counseling. By 1993, King and Bumpus were divorced.
“I realized he hadn’t really changed, but I was turning into such a shrew,” she recalled during the same May 2026 podcast episode. “I would be out in the garage feeling the hood of the car to see if it was warm. I was going through his phone. And I thought, ‘I don’t want to live like this,’ only to find out he was cheating again.”
Keep scrolling to look back at King and Bumpus’ relationship timeline:
1982
King and Bumpus got married.
1986
The former couple welcomed their first child, a daughter named Kirby.
1987
They expanded their family when their second child, son William Jr., was born.
William Bumpus and Will Bumpus Courtesy of William Bumpus/Instagram
1990
King discovered that Bumpus was having an affair.
“I’m not a huge fan of the woman I caught naked with my now ex-husband on June 24, 1990, at 9:16 p.m.,” King told Vanity Fair in July 2016. “But I don’t remember the details.”
1993
After attempting to reconcile, King and Bumpus officially divorced.
“I didn’t like who I was. Who wants to live like that?” King said during the May 2026 episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. “I didn’t want to be that person.”
2006
King briefly discussed their split while interviewing Will Smith.
“I was married to a cheater,” Smith said at the time. “I went to marital counseling. I have been divorced since 1993, so I’m all healed and everything. I have worked it out. I’m not bitter. I’m OK. I’m really OK.”
2016
Bumpus made his first public apology to King, years after their split.
“I have been haunted with this life altering choice. Though I have dealt with this privately,” Bumpus said in a statement at the time. “I publicly apologize for the major transgression that dramatically changed all of our lives.”
Bumpus said he had “nothing but the utmost respect” for King.
“Despite the situation, she kept our children, as well as my relationship and involvement with them, as a clear priority. Gayle was a great wife, an excellent mother and a fantastic coparent,” he added. “I am eternally grateful for all that she has done and continues to do to enrich my life and the lives of our incredible adult children. I continue to be a work in progress and have spent the last 26 years striving to be a better man and father. I applaud Gayle’s continued phenomenal success and friendship!”
2026
A decade later, King recalled the day she found out that Bumpus was cheating while appearing on “Call Her Daddy.” Bumpus apparently told King that she couldn’t enter their shared home when she unexpectedly came back from the airport.
“There she is cowering behind the door in my towel,” King recalled. “It was a nice bath sheet.”
Bumpus acknowledged the affair in a statement following the episode’s release.
“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. Those actions were mine,” he said. “I have long owned [my actions] — including publicly in my own words in 2016, which still stand.”
Bumpus continued, “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.”
