Gayle King on being shocked she’s a Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover model and why Oprah told her to ‘go for it’

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

(CNN) — Gayle King learned she was a Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover model the same time the rest of the world did.

The co-anchor of “CBS Mornings” found out on her show Tuesday in an interview with fellow SI cover models Kate Upton and Hunter McGrady.

Upton handed King a copy of the magazine that had King on the cover.

“I’m on the cover?” the 69-year-old King said, surprised. “They told me I was just going to be on the inside.”

McGrady said “sexy isn’t an age.”

“Sexy isn’t a size. Look how beautiful you look,” McGrady said to King. “That’s so inspiring to women of all ages. Yes girl, you did that.”

King said, “I just never saw myself this way.”

“I still don’t see myself this way,” she said. “But when I look at that…I go, I look damn good.”

King told “Entertainment Tonight” that her friend Oprah Winfrey was very supportive of her posing for the magazine.

“Oprah said, ‘You and I have two different ideas of fun. You would enjoy that.’ I go, ‘I do, I do,” King said. “But she said, ‘It’s so you, you should go for it.’ and I do feel it’s going for it.”

This is the he 60th anniversary edition of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition. King is one of several cover models, along with Upton, McGrady and Chrissy Teigen.

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