Gayle King is under fire again — and this time, it’s not for anything that happened on air. The longtime CBS Mornings co-host sparked outrage after sharing a vacation video of herself kissing wild stingrays in the Cayman Islands, setting off a storm of criticism from animal advocates who say the stunt crossed a line.
The clip, posted on January 20, shows King wading through the bright-blue waters of Stingray City, a major tourist draw known for letting visitors touch and pose with the sea creatures. King joked about a local superstition promising seven years of luck for a stingray kiss. “So I kissed that sucker twice,” she said on camera. “Hope this really works.”
Her followers did not think it was funny.
“Why are you doing that? Leave nature alone,” one viewer snapped. Another warned, “They’re not here for your entertainment,” while a third wrote, “Gross. Don’t touch them. You’re disrupting their natural bacteria.”
Some environmentalists echoed the same sentiment, saying the viral moment sends the wrong message. Austin Rivera, a Florida-based marine conservationist not connected to the incident, told us, “People see celebrities doing this and think it’s harmless. It’s not. Human hands carry oils and bacteria that can affect a stingray’s skin. These interactions add stress even when the animals look calm.”
Animal welfare groups have condemned the practice for years. PETA has repeatedly warned that stingrays used in tourist settings often undergo painful procedures to make encounters safer for guests. “Their barb tissue is sometimes clipped, and that can lead to infection or long-term injury,” the organization said in a previous statement. “It also makes people underestimate the danger of approaching wild stingrays who have not been disarmed.”
A Caribbean tour guide who works in the Grand Cayman area told us that the booming number of visitors has changed the once-quiet sandbar. “Those stingrays are used to crowds now,” he said, “but that doesn’t mean they should be handled like props. People forget they’re wild.”
The blistering backlash comes at a sensitive moment for King. CBS is battling a ratings downturn under its new editorial leadership, and insiders say the tension behind the scenes has been growing. One network staffer, speaking anonymously, said, “Anything Gayle does right now gets magnified. She’s an anchor, a face of the network. Every misstep becomes a headline.”
For now, King hasn’t responded publicly to the outrage. But viewers continue to flood her comments with warnings and frustration. One summed up the sentiment: “Imagine the germs we spread into their world. Do better.”
Whether the stingray kisses brought good luck is unclear. What they definitely brought was controversy — and more heat on a host already navigating a rough chapter at CBS.
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What is wrong with her anyways? Brainless,
So… if taking off in a homemade rocket makes her a legitimate astronaut, will this stunt automatically turn her into an oceanographer?