Gayle King is still looking for love after her 1993 divorce from ex-husband William Bumpus.
The two wed in 1982 but called it quits years later after King discovered in 1990 that he was having an affair with one of her close friends. At the time, King unexpectedly returned to their shared home after her flight got canceled.
Bumpus told King that she couldn’t come in the house, telling her “there’s somebody in” there.
“I didn’t believe him,” King said during a May 2026 appearance on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. “I get down and there they are — or there she is cowering behind the door in my towel. It was a nice bath sheet.”
Looking back, King said she acted “so pitiful” when confronting the woman.
“I said, ‘I can’t believe that you are here and that you are doing this,’” she said during the same podcast episode.
While King and Bumpus initially tried to salvage their marriage, they divorced by 1993.
“I realized he hadn’t really changed, but I was turning into such a shrew,” King. “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 for everything to know about Bumpus:
What Does William Bumpus Do for Work?
Bumpus is an attorney. He’s currently a partner at the Wolf and Shore Law Group, specializing in family law and collaborative divorce.
How Long Were Gayle King and William Bumpus Married?
The former couple were married for 11 years before deciding to divorce.
Do Gayle King and William Bumpus Have Kids?
King and Bumpus share two adult children, daughter Kirby and son William Jr.
Who Did William Bumpus Have an Affair With?
Details about the woman that Bumpus had an affair with have not been revealed. King, however, did talk about the situation at length during her May 2026 “Call Her Daddy” appearance.
“I always say if I was writing a book, the first line in my book would be, ‘Whack,’ the sound of a tennis ball. She said, ‘Nice shot, Bill.’ The way she said it, there was such an intimacy in her voice,” King recalled, looking back at red flags in her marriage. “The hair stood up on the back of my neck and I thought, ‘Why am I feeling that way?’ It was weird.”
Bumpus has since acknowledged his affair in multiple statements, the first in 2016. He also released a second statement in May 2026.
“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,” he said, in part, at the time. “I respect her right to tell her story, and that’s where I’ll leave it.”
Did William Bumpus Get Remarried?
It’s unclear if Bumpus remarried following his divorce from King.
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