Timeline of Gayle King’s relationship with Ex William Bumpus

Gayle King she was married to her ex-husband William Bumpus 11 years before they decided to separate.

King has been open about his ex’s infidelity, discussing the time he caught her cheating with a friend in June 1990.

“I said, ‘I can’t believe you’re here and doing this,'” King recalled during a May 2026 episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, telling host Alex Cooper that he sounded “very sad” when he confronted Bumpus and his friend.

King caught them after arriving home unexpectedly following a canceled flight. They had two children, daughter Kirby and son William Jr.

“I was thinking, ‘The kids are here, I don’t want anyone to know,'” she recalled. “That was my main thought, ‘I don’t want anyone to know.’ That wouldn’t happen to me today.”

They first went to counseling. In 1993, King and Bumpus separated.

“I realized he hadn’t really changed, but then I turned into a villain,” he recalls in the same episode of the May 2026 podcast. “I was out in the garage feeling the hood of the car to see if it was warm. I was going through his phone. I thought, ‘I don’t want to live like this,’ and I found out that he is cheating again.”

Keep scrolling for a look back at the timeline of King and Bumpus’ relationship:

1982

The king and Bumpus got married.

1986

The former couple welcomed their first child, a daughter named Kirby.

1987

They expanded their family with the birth of their second child, son William Jr..

1990

The king found out that Bumpus was having an affair.

“I’m not a fan of the woman I caught naked with my ex-husband on June 24, 1990, at 9:16 p.m.,” said King. Vanity Fair in July 2016. “But I don’t remember the details.”

1993

After trying to reconcile, King and Bumpus officially divorced.

“I didn’t like who I was. Who wants to live like that? King said during a May 2026 episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. “I didn’t want to be that person.”

2006

King briefly discussed their breakup during an interview with Will Smith.

“I was married to a cheater,” Smith said at the time. “I went to marriage counseling, I’ve been divorced since 1993, so I’ve recovered from everything. I’ve fixed it, I’m not bitter.

2016

Bumpus made his first public apology to King, years after their breakup.

“I have suffered from this decision that changes my life. Although I have faced this in private,” Bumpus said in a statement at the time. “I am publicly apologizing for a major mistake that has changed all of our lives.”

Bumpus said he has “nothing but great respect” for King.

“Despite this situation, she kept our children, and my relationship and involvement with them as a priority. Gayle was a wonderful wife, a wonderful mother and a wonderful parent,” he added. “I am eternally grateful for all he has done and continues to do to enrich my life and the lives of our wonderful grown children. I am still a work in progress and have spent 26 years trying to be a better husband and father. I applaud Gayle’s continued success and his amazing friendship!”

2026

Ten years later, King recalled the day he found out Bumpus was cheating when he appeared on “Call Her Daddy.” Bumpus told Nkosi that he could not enter their house when he unexpectedly returned from the airport.

“There he was barking behind the door for my towel,” King recalled. “It was a nice bath sheet.”

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Bumpus admitted this in a statement after the episode aired.

He said: “I am very sorry to Gayle, to our daughter Kirby and her husband, Virgil, to our son William and his wife, Elise, and to our three grandchildren, for the pain I have caused over the past decades.” Those actions were mine. “I’ve had it for a long time [my actions] – including publicly in my words in 2016, still. “

Bumpus continued, “Gayle has every right to talk about the painful chapter that changed the course of our marriage and our family nearly 40 years ago. I respect her right to tell her story, and that’s where I’ll leave it.”