Oprah Winfrey Shares New Realization About Friend Gayle King: She 'Was My Regulation'

Oprah Winfrey got emotional as she opened up about her friendship with Gayle King and how the latter helped her through her ups and downs over the years.

During her appearance on "The Drew Barrymore Show" Friday, Winfrey revealed that she has realized that her best friend, King, whom she described as her regulator, was one of the main reasons why she has managed to make it through her struggles without seeking therapy.

"I never had therapy -- I had all my therapy on television in front of all of y'all -- and what I realized ... is that Gayle was my regulation," the media mogul told host Drew Barrymore.

"It makes me want to cry now thinking about it," she continued. "Every night after the show, I would come home, and I would have these sessions with Gayle where we talked about what happened on the show, or what didn’t happen on the show, and that was the way I kind of regulated myself. So, I would talk to Gayle before bed, and then I would be calmer."

Winfrey added that she only recently came to that realization when she was writing and backreading her new book, "What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing." She also said King was among the few people who have been and will always be completely honest with her.

"And it wasn’t until I not only was co-authoring the book but actually went back and re-read the book that I realized, 'Oh Gayle was what I used for my sense of regulation,' and is still the person in my life," Winfrey continued. "I have probably three people in my life who are going to tell me the truth no matter what."

Just recently, Winfrey also shared a traumatic childhood experience linked to her feeling unsafe while sleeping. When she appeared on "The Dr. Oz Show," she recalled waking up one night with her grandfather's hands around her grandmother's neck, and the latter was screaming.

"And after that, my grandmother put a chair underneath the doorknob and some tin cans around the chair. And that is how we slept every night. I'm sleeping, I always slept with, listening for the cans. Listening for what happens if that doorknob moves," she said.