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Amid Sean "Diddy" Combs' arrest on September 16, 2024, certain clips involving news about Gayle King and Oprah Winfrey began circulating online. The clips claimed that the 69-year-old TV personality had sued Oprah in connection to the Combs allegations.
Meanwhile, Snopes reported that a reader asked them through a mail dated Sunday, September 22, if the rumor was true. The reader reportedly wrote in the e-mail:
"Is it true that Gayle King is suing Oprah over P. 'Diddy' allegations? I saw something on Facebook."
The rumor allegedly stemmed from a number of videos uploaded by untrustworthy Facebook gossip pages about Black celebrities. The videos didn't involve a person narrating the news, instead the maker had used an AI tool to process the text into spoken words.
The rumor is untrue and must be debunked. No news about any such lawsuit had been reported by a reputable news outlet as of now. This implied that there was no solid proof to corroborate the claims that King sued Oprah.
Snopes also reported that the claim was totally false and had possibly been posted just to get views.
Diddy was detained by federal agents last week in connection to s*x trafficking allegations. Similar charges have been mentioned in his indictment as well.
Gayle King did not file a lawsuit against Oprah in connection to the allegations related to Diddy
As mentioned, several videos and clips had surfaced on social media during the time around Combs' arrest last week. One of them was uploaded on August 16, 2024, on Facebook, by the Billy Benjamin page, whose managers reportedly operate it from Indonesia.
The now-deleted video was about 43 seconds long and was titled "Gayle King Files Major Lawsuit Against Oprah Winfrey Over 'Diddy's' Schemes." This was one such clip which made the rumor spread like wildfire.
Shortly after its release, it garnered about 355,000 views. Multiple videos were posted on the same page with the same claims, which should now be debunked.
The viral video's AI narrator said:
"Rumors are swirling that Gayle King has filed a lawsuit against her long-time friend Oprah Winfrey, accusing Oprah of implicating her in "Diddy's" ongoing scandal."
The video further claimed that while Gayle and Oprah were known to have a great bond back in the 1970s, the recent drama involving Combs had led to the rumored lawsuit. The narrator further read:
"Now, Gayle's name has surfaced, and she's taking legal action, claiming Oprah's comments have unintentionally damaged her reputation."
While the August 16 video had been removed, other clips with same claims have resurfaced on YouTube.
After the drama involving Diddy began, this wasn't the first rumor to surface. In May 2024, Bishop T.D. Jakes was falsely rumored to have resigned from his senior pastor position at The Potter's House megachurch in Dallas, due to some alleged links with the music mogul.
