Everyone deserves a surprise party at least once, and Oprah understood the assignment. The media mogul threw her bestie Gayle King a surprise birthday party to bring in 70.
King thought she’d be attending a holiday party for one of Oprah’s companies, only to walk in at a party that was specially curated for her. When King walked in, her loved ones shouted “surprise,” and the journalist, taken aback, threw her clutch on the bar.
The birthday bash occurred at New York City’s Ci Siamo restaurant, and DJ Suss One was the emcee for the event. The CBS Mornings anchor turned up in a green dress with a tassel-like bottom and coordinated green heels.
Of course, the night wouldn’t be complete without a heartfelt birthday speech from Winfrey, 70.
“Next year marks a half a century that we’ve been friends,” the serial entrepreneur said during the speech. “In 50 years, we have been in sync, in each other’s corner, supportive of one another, looking forward to the best that could happen for each other.”
The TV producer continued saying King is “the one person in my life who has always been just more overjoyed for anything that happened to me” and said, “the world is a better place from the joy that Gayle brings everybody.”
Some A-list celebs that attended the soiree include Katy Perry, Stephen Colbert, Angela Bassett, Jeff Bezos, Brooke Shields, and Andy Cohen.
King was treated to a four-tiered birthday cake with sparklers
“I can’t believe that you pulled this off; I can’t believe that you guys came for me,” King said to her guests during a speech. “I am just blown away by the people who’ve taken their time just to come… I’m so grateful. Thank you so, so much. I really do feel the love.”
King posted about the love fest of a party on Instagram, sharing videos and photos from the night.
“Talk about a surprise !!! I thought I was going to @oprah’s holiday dinner for the @oprahdaily team at her favorite restaurant @cisiamonyc and then THIS happened ….” she wrote under a post of her reaction to the surprise.
After the fact, Oprah also posted her thoughts on Instagram, sharing how hard it is to surprise her best friend of 50 years.
“My bestie of 50 years is turning 70 so we gathered everyone that loved her to celebrate. Hard thing to surprise her, O the stories we have made up, the lies we have told to keep this a secret. Happy birthday @gayleking, sorry we almost gave you a heart attack,” she wrote in a caption.
King’s actual birthday is December 28th, so the surprise came early. Happy birthday to a queen, and we hope she celebrates it all month.
