CBS Mornings anchor Gayle King had just begun a live interview with two cover stars of Sports Illustrated’s 2024 swimsuit issue on Tuesday when she received an on-air bombshell: the new swimsuit issue. Swimsuits, which marks the publication’s 60th anniversary, has a cover with Ms. King also posing in a swimsuit.
“Isn’t that a fake cover?” Is this going to be on newsstands? Oh my God! Oh my God!” a radiant Mrs. King ” cried after model Kate Upton, her fellow cover star, handed her a copy of the magazine showing Ms. King posing in a colorful printed Evarae one-piece and matching cover-up under the Sports Illustrated logo.
Ms. King, 69, whose cover portrait was photographed in Cancun, Mexico, in December, explained on the television show that she thought the photo would appear on the inside pages.
Although Ms. King and several other women were also photographed in evening wear for a group cover of this year’s swimsuit issue, landing her own cover alongside models like Mrs. Upton, Chrissy Teigen And Hunter McGrady came as a shock — especially since Ms. King had thought “someone was making a joke” when she was initially approached to appear in the publication, she said in an interview Wednesday.
“I was actually hesitant when they first asked me,” Ms. King said, adding that MJ Day, editor of the swimsuit issue, helped persuade her to participate after explaining that this year’s edition was focused on legacy and longevity. and women who were at the peak of their careers.
“I didn’t want to look stupid or like I was trying too hard, but I thought it might be fun,” Ms. King said. She received additional encouragement from her “kitchen cabinet”: her children, Kirby Bumpus and William Bumpus Jr., and her long time best friendOprah Winfrey, who, Ms. King said jokingly, “pointed out that we both often have quite different ideas about pleasure.”
Fears that she might need to “lose a rib” or “20 pounds” for her swimsuit photos were allayed by assurances from the Sports Illustrated team that Ms. King should look like her. Therefore, she said, her preparations for filming in Cancun included eating a cheeseburger the night before and performing the exercise routine she usually does before filming her morning show.
In her swimsuit photos, Ms. King looks relaxed and breezy, like a woman happy in her skin on vacation — which is exactly how she said she felt.
She attributed her comfort on set to photographer Yu Tsai, who she said helped ease her nerves by stimulating her and guiding her on how to pose. Ms. King was so pleased with the final images, she said, that she requested minimal editing — except for an interior photo of her leaning against a palm tree, wearing a plunging yellow Eres one-piece and gold jewelry. gold.
“I haven’t been bothered by things like dimples, I don’t have issues with my age,” Ms King said. But the yellow swimsuit was “a little too boobalicious,” as she put it, so she suggested editing the photo to show less skin.
“I love tasteful necklines,” Ms. King said. “But I didn’t want to seem like I was trying to flash people.”
Ms. Day, since becoming editor-in-chief of the swimsuit issue in 2012, has been known for her efforts to diversify the publication and make it more than a collection of pin-up style photos. Martha Stewart, 82, appeared on a cover last yearand Maye Musk, 76, model and mother of Elon Musk, makes a cover in 2022.
In a telephone interview last week, Ms. Day said the time she spent overseeing the swimsuit issue reflected her desire to promote diversity and change perceptions of beauty at Sports Illustrated, which published its first swimsuit issue in 1964 and has spent recent months in turmoil amid mass layoffs and a fight over publishing rights.
Ms. Day said that Ms. King, a former magazine editor and first television presenter to grace the cover of a swimsuit issue, was “one of the elite journalists of our time.”
“She’s a black woman and she’s sitting where she’s sitting because she’s very passionate and intelligent and strong-willed,” Ms. Day said. “She is a mature leader. Having a cover star who isn’t in the modeling world is also a conversation we want to continue to host as a headline. No one would imagine that she would want to do something like that, but the fact that she does it and is proud of it is important for women.
