Snoop Dogg slams Gayle King for questions on Kobe Bryant rape case: ‘How dare you?’
Gayle King, host of CBS’ This Morning, has apologized after her questions about Kobe Bryant’s rape case went viral and drew much criticism, including from rapper Snoop Dogg.
King sat down with retired WNBA star Lisa Leslie on Tuesday to talk about Bryant’s legacy. Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others died in a helicopter crash last month in Calabasas, Calif.
King brought up Bryant’s 2003 rape charge, asking, “It’s been said that his legacy is complicated because of a sexual assault charge which was dismissed in 2003, 2004. Is it complicated for you, as a woman, as a WNBA player?”
“It’s not complicated for me at all,” Leslie said. She mentioned that other basketball players “tried to get her to play wing-man for them,” but Kobe was “not the kind of guy” and “was never like that.”
Bryant was charged in connection with the sexual assault of a 19-year-old woman in 2003, but the case was dropped because the accuser wasn’t willing to testify, according to The New York Times.
She then filed a lawsuit against Bryant, which ended in a settlement, the Times reported.
King also asked if it was “fair” to bring up Bryant’s rape allegation after he died.
Leslie responded: “I think the media should be more respectful at this time. It’s like if you had questions about it, you’ve had many years to ask him that. I don’t think it’s something that we should keep hanging out his legacy.”
After the clip went viral, many slammed King, including Snoop Dogg.
“Gayle King, you’re out of pocket for that s—t,” he said in an Instagram post. “Way out of pocket. What do you gain from that? We expect more from you Gayle. Don’t you hang out with Oprah [Winfrey]? Why are you all attacking us? We’re your people. You don’t come after Harvey Weinstein, asking those dumba—s questions. I’m sick of y’all. Funky doghead b—h. How dare you try to torch my homeboy’s reputation, punk motherf—r. Respect the family and back off, b—h, before we come get you.””
King has since responded to the backlash, saying she’s “embarrassed” and “mortified.”
“I’ve been up reading the comments about the interview I did with Lisa Leslie about Kobe Bryant,” she said in an Instagram video. “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.
“Unbeknownst to me, my network put up a clip from a very wide ranging interview, totally taken out of context and when you see it that way, it’s very jarring,” King continued. “It’s jarring to me. I didn’t even know anything about it. I started getting calls, ‘What the hell are you doing? Why did you say this? What is happening?’ I did not know what people were talking about.”
Snoop also invoked Bill Cosby in another Instagram post about Oprah, writing “Free Bill Cosby.”
Cosby, while in prison, appeared to reply to Snoop’s remarks on Instagram and Twitter.
“Snoop - when they brought me to my gated community and placed me inside of my penthouse, they didn’t win nor did they silence me,” he wrote in an Instagram post. “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.”
This story was originally published February 6, 2020 at 9:47 AM.