Tearful: Oprah Winfrey was brought to tears when she talked about her love for her best friend, Gayle King, during an interview with Barbara WaltersFor 25 years she has sat by as guests bared their souls and poured out their hearts.
But when asked about her own personal life, all of Oprah Winfrey’s training went out the window - and she burst into tears.
In a deeply personal interview, the talk show host cried on camera when talking about her best friend Gayle King.
But she denied reports the two are in a relationship, stating: 'I am not lesbian. I am not even kind of lesbian.'
The 56-year-old who has been with long term partner Stedman Graham since 1986, insisted she and King are not involved in a lesbian affair and never have been.
‘I have said we are not gay enough times. I am not lesbian. I am not even kind of lesbian.
'That irritates me because it means somebody must think I'm lying. That's No. 1. No. 2, why would you want to hide it?
'That is not the way I run my life.’
Winfrey also hailed King as ‘the friend everybody deserves’ before wiping her eyes and composing herself.
The interview with ABC’s Barbara Walters, was to mark the beginning of the end for Winfrey’s talk show, which will finish next September after 25 years.
Moving: Oprah calls Gayle: 'The mother I never had. She is the sister everybody would want. She is the friend everyone deserves'
She explained that she and King, 55, have supported each other for many years and they are so close that she appointed her friend as the editor for O, her monthly magazine.
‘She's the mother I never had. She is the sister everybody would want.
'She is the friend everybody deserves. I don't know a better person,’ said Winfrey as she welled up. ‘I don’t know a better person’
‘Shoot, I wasn’t going to cry here. It's making me cry because I'm thinking how much I probably never told her that. I’ve never told her that.
End of an era: Oprah has taped an hour long special for ABC to mark the end of her 25-year reign as the Queen of daytime talk‘We're not like, 'Oh, you, you're my dearest friend... thanks.'
‘The therapy I didn't have and don't need is because of my thousands and thousands of hours on the phone with Gayle. I get to release the day by talking it through. And I just realised she's the friend everybody should have.’
The hour-long special will explore the past 25 years of both Oprah's personal and professional life, and will also examine her new network, OWN, or the Oprah Winfrey Network, just weeks before its January debut.
Veteran: Barbara Walters has been in the business even longer than Oprah, she's better known nowadays as a co-host on daytime TV show, The ViewThe hour will also include a look at the most memorable moments from the Oprah Winfrey Show.
Asked about family life, Winfrey dismissed the idea of having children because it would not have been compatible with her career.
‘For a while I thought, "Well, maybe," every time I went to Africa, and Stedman says this too. Every time I went to Africa he didn't know when I got off the plane if I was going to have one or two or ten children.
Brokeback buddies: Oprah and Gayle recently went on a camping trip together where they 'roughed it' in a tent and went fishing and horseback riding‘I could not... have had this life and lived it with the level of intensity that is required to do this show the way it's done.
‘I'd be one of those people that the kid's coming and saying, "Mom, you've neglected me.".. So I have no regrets about that.
'I have none ... not one regret about not having children because I believe that ... it is the way it's supposed to be.’
Best friends forever: Oprah and Gayle go back years together - Oprah awarded Gayle with he coveted position of Editor of her magazine, OWalters, who has known Winfrey since the start of her talk show career, said: ‘The interview is extremely personal.
‘She talks about her hopes and fears in starting her cable network and her feelings about not wanting to have children.
‘A good part of it has to do with her relationships with Gayle and with Stedman. It's a very intimate portrait.’
The interview will be broadcast on ABC on Thursday night.
Partners in crime: Oprah and Stedman Graham have been dating since 1986, but despite being engaged for many years still have no plans to officially wedsource: dailymail
