Gayle King used a gay slur while retelling a joke on live TV.
The broadcast journalist was interviewing comedian Matteo Lane — who is openly gay — about his new cookbook, “Your Pasta Sucks,” when she quoted one of his jokes back to him.
“You embrace being gay and your homosexuality,” King, 70, said to Lane, 38, who had been freely discussing his sexual orientation throughout the chat.
“And I’m wondering — where did this come from? The funniness that you were able to combine with cooking and and your stand-up, too?”
Lane explained that he comes from “a large family where you have to have something funny to say or be opinionated, so you have to speak up,” adding that it “felt very natural” for him to merge comedy with his kitchen skills.
King then said, “Let’s talk about the stand-up [special]. Can I just say one joke? I hope I don’t get in trouble. You do a riff about white women who have approached you, and they said something about cooking, and you said, ‘What in the f—-ttry are you talking about?’”
She did not censor the word.
However, in later airings of the show and on social media, the slur was removed.
Reps for Lane did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment, but he did seem to find the comment amusing in the moment, as he let out a hearty cackle and exclaimed, “I love you Gayle King!”
When King asked what the remark meant, Lane replied, “It means exactly what you think it means — what in the hell?”
While a few netizens felt the moment was “honestly iconic,” most were shocked by the move — including her co-hosts during the segment, Tony Dokoupil and Nate Burleson.
King’s reps did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
