EXCLUSIVE: Gayle King's Ex's Groveling Apology — TV Titan's Former Husband Begs For Forgiveness for Bringing Another Woman into Their Bed
Gayle King's ex-husband is seeking forgiveness after admitting to a betrayal during their marriage.
June 17 2026, Published 8:00 a.m. ET
TV Titan Gayle King's groveling ex-husband is once again apologizing for cheating on the CBS Mornings host decades ago after she aired the dirty details of how she caught him with another woman, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The messy mea culpa was prompted by King, 71, dishing on the unfortunate encounter during the May 27 episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast.
Gayle Caught Husband Red-Handed
Gayle King recalled catching William Bumpus with another woman in their home in 1990.
King recounted how she returned home on the night of June 24, 1990, with her and then-spouse William Bumpus' two kids, daughter Kirby, now 40, and son Will, 39, after her flight had been canceled.
"He comes flying out of the room. He's got a towel on, and he goes, 'You can't come in!'" King recalls of William's panicked reception, which led her to respond, "What do you mean I can't come in? What are you talking about?"
Bumpus, she added, gave up the ghost at that point by admitting "someone's here," a revelation that King says led her to search the house and find the other woman – who has still never been publicly identified by name but who Gayle has referred to as a friend – "cowering behind the door in my towel."
King shared: "I said, 'I can't believe that you are here and that you are doing this.' I even said – I sounded so pitiful – 'I thought we were friends.'"
Ex-Husband Apologizes for Affair
Bumpus publicly apologized again for the affair that ended his marriage to King.
The incident was the fatal blow to the 11-year marriage. King and Bumpus divorced in 1993.
Following the daytime yakker's interview, Bumpus – a retired lawyer who worked in the Connecticut Attorney General's Office – publicly apologized for his philandering and "the pain" he caused his family "decades ago." He conceded, "Those actions were mine."
This isn't the first time King has discussed her painful past – or the first time Bumpus has apologized.
Ex-Husband Haunted by Affair
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'Vanity Fair' previously featured King's comments about the woman she found with Bumpus.
In 2006, she exposed his cheating to the world on her radio show, and in 2016, she told Vanity Fair that she wasn't a huge fan of the woman "who I caught naked with" Bumpus.
After the 2016 sit-down, Bumpus responded by saying he was "haunted" by his "life-altering choice... that dramatically changed all our lives."
He added: "I have nothing but the utmost respect for Gayle and how she handled herself with grace."
