King was born in Chevy Chase, Maryland,[5] and from age six to eleven she lived in Ankara, Turkey, where her father was deployed.

[6] King began her career as a production assistant at WJZ-TV in Baltimore, where she met Oprah Winfrey, an anchor for the station at the time.

[12] The Gayle King Show ended on November 17, 2011, as a result of King going to CBS to co-anchor CBS This Morning alongside Charlie Rose[13] and a series of third co-anchors including for a time Norah O'Donnell.

[19] Before joining CBS News, King worked as a special correspondent for Good Morning America.

[26] In 2020, shortly after the death of Kobe Bryant, King received social media criticism for a CBS This Morning interview with former WNBA player Lisa Leslie, in which King brought up Bryant's sexual assault allegations from 2003.

The network said in a statement that the excerpt was not reflective of the "thoughtful, wide-ranging interview" King had conducted with Leslie.

[31] In a 2010 interview with Barbara Walters, Winfrey said of King, "She is the mother I never had; she is the sister everybody would want; she is the friend everybody deserves; I don't know a better person".

[3][33] They share a daughter, Kirby, and a son, William Bumpus Jr.[34][33] In 2023, King appeared on Celebrity Family Feud.