Oprah Winfrey is so proud of her bestie.
The billionaire, 71, cried when her BFF Gayle King took off into space on the Blue Origin mission Monday morning alongside five others, including Katy Perry and Jeff Bezos’s fiancée, Lauren Sánchez.
Winfrey was on scene at the launch site in West Texas and told a reporter during the livestream that she wore yellow because King, 70, is “sunshine.”
Noting that the pair have been friends for nearly 50 years, Winfrey said she’s “never been more proud” of the “CBS Mornings” anchor.
“This is bigger than going to space for her,” Winfrey stated. “Anytime we’re on a flight, she’s [King] in anybody’s lap if there’s the slightest bit of turbulence, has real, real anxiety flying. And this is overcoming a wall of fear, a barrier.”
“I think it’s gonna be cathartic in so many ways for her,” Winfrey added.
The “Selma” producer explained that she wanted King to go on the space journey because “life is about continuing to grow into the best of yourself and the fullest expression of yourself.”
“I think this is one of the most fullest expressions you can possibly have,” Winfrey went on. “I felt deeply that she would regret it, and I didn’t want to hear about it for the next 15 years. ‘I wish I had gone.’ I said there’s only one time that all of the women are going up for the first time. There will be other trips, but there’s only one first time. So to be a pioneer is great.”
Winfrey said that during their final conversation before the space flight, she told King, “Peace be still. Hold to God’s unchanging hand. He’s got your back.”
Winfrey explained that she felt “so calm” before takeoff as the reporter asked for Winfrey’s take on King being openly “afraid” for the space flight.
“For every woman who is on this flight, it’s about fulfilling something within themselves,” Winfrey noted. “For Gayle, it’s about overcoming this great fear and also stepping into the moment of excitement. It goes beyond this moment of just going into space. I think this will be an everlasting experience.”
Before the New Shepard rocket’s lift off, King looked nervous as she arrived in West Texas for the flight.
“Gayle King is literally petrified about going to space?? like are they forcing her to do this…” one person wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
“Boyyy, Gayle King looks scared af to go to space,” someone else said.
A third person tweeted, “Gayle is terror-stricken. Shouldn’t have agreed to this Miss Sis.”
King, Perry, 40, and Sánchez, 55, were joined by former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen and film producer Kerianne Flynn for Monday’s flight.
The group, who wore matching blue space suits, enjoyed a few minutes in space before returning to Earth as part of the all-female 11-minute space tourism flight.
Both King and Perry kissed the ground when they returned to Earth.
“Oh my God, that was amazing,” King said with a large sigh of relief.
King also told a reporter after the flight, “It’s oddly quiet when you get up there. It’s quiet and peaceful. You look down at the planet and you think, ‘That’s where we came from?’ To me it’s such a reminder about how we need to do better, be better.”
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