Bill Cosby Calls out Gayle King Amid Her Kobe Bryant Rape Accusation Questioning

Bill Cosby is weighing in from prison on the recent controversy caused by a clip of Gayle King interviewing WNBA star Lisa Leslie about late Los Angeles player and friend Kobe Bryant, and his 2003 sexual assault charge. The Cosby Show star, who is serving 3-10 years in prison for his 2018 conviction on three counts of aggravated indecent assault for drugging and molesting a woman, took to Instagram Thursday to share his thoughts on the interview.

“It’s so sad and disappointing that successful Black Women are being used to tarnish the image and legacy of successful Black Men, even in death,” Cosby wrote. “Are these people that are in need of fame, ratings and/or money? On behalf of myself, Camille and my family, thank you, thank you and thank you. My heartfelt prayers are with Kobe and his family, as well as with Michael Jackson and his family. May their legacies live on forever.”

King herself has called the interview taken out of context, saying on Instagram after the initial backlash, “I’ve been up reading the comments about the interview I did with Lisa Leslie about Kobe Bryant, and I know that if I had only seen the clip that you saw, I’d be extremely angry with me too. I am mortified. I am embarrassed and I am very angry.”

King’s longtime best friend, Oprah Winfrey, has also opened up about the backlash, saying on Friday’s segment of Today With Hoda & Jenna that King has been receiving death threats since the preview aired.

“She’s not doing well,” Winfrey revealed, clearly emotional. “May I say, she is not doing well because she has now death threats, and has to now travel with security and she’s feeling very much attacked.”

Referencing Cosby‘s Instagram post from prison, Winfrey said that King is “not doing well and feels that she was put in a really terrible position because that interview had already ran.”

“And in the context of the interview, everyone seemed fine, including Lisa Leslie and it was only because somebody at the network put up that clip and I can see how people would obviously be very upset if you thought that Gayle was just trying to press to get an answer from Lisa Leslie,” she continued. “But obviously all things pass, she will be okay but she hasn’t slept in two days.”

“Anybody can criticize anything, but the misogynist vitriol and the attacking to the point where it is dangerous to be in the streets alone because it’s not just the people who are attacking, and the other people who take that message and feel like they can do whatever they want because of it,” she concluded.

Photo credit: Pool, Getty