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Gayle King

Source: WENN/Avalon / WENN

The Oprah Winfrey Show could have turned into the Gayle King Show. In a chat with Drew Barrymore on her online show, The Art of the Interview, Gayle King revealed that she could have taken over her bestie’s successful talk show when she decided to step down.

King revealed that Winfrey wanted to go change career paths after being a talk show host for 25 years and wanted to give King the reigns.

“She wanted go to into acting, she wanted to act full-time because she loved acting,”King told Barrymore. “So her plan was, you move to Chicago and we’ll incorporate you in the show, so at the end of the year, I can sort of pass the baton.”

The CBS This Morning host said though the opportunity was promising, she didn’t think it was fair to her children to take on such a time consuming role since she was a single mother. She and her ex-husband, William Bumpus, divorced in 1993.

“And I was really…imagine a huge opportunity,” she continued. “I was really excited about that. And the kids were, you know, we were divorced so they were still young and then I realized that that wouldn’t be fair to them. So in the end, I just decided to not take her up on that offer.”

King said her daughter Kirby and her son Will Jr.’s “well-being to me was more important than whatever career opportunity I could have had at the time. And I don’t regret that.”

Watch King’s interview with Barrymore below.

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