At 69, Gayle King Flaunts 25-Lb. Weight Loss On The Cover Of 'SI's Swimsuit Issue

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CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King clenched a spot on the 2024 cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, and she looks incredible in a chic, printed one-piece swimsuit and a matching cover-up with her toned arms on full display.

On Tuesday, fellow cover stars Kate Upton and Hunter McGrady surprised the journalist with her cover for the first time during a live on-air segment of CBS Mornings.

"Ahh! I'm on the cover," Gayle said excitedly as she held the issue. "They told me I was just going to be on the inside! It's not a dummy cover? This is going to be on the newsstands? Oh my God! Oh my God!"

Gayle never thought she'd be on the cover of such a big magazine. "I’m floating, I’m floating, I can’t believe it," she said. "Never in my wildest dreams! Never, ever, ever."

CBS Mornings shared the moment on Instagram with the caption, "SURPRISE: Our very own @gayleking is one of this year's @si_swimsuit's cover stars! Gayle reacts to seeing her cover for the very first time: "I cannot get over it."

Followers congratulated the Gayle King in the House host in the comments and praised her strong figure. "Gayle!! You got your cover girl!!!! Congratulations!!!!!!!!," model Ashley Graham wrote. Someone else commented "Inspiration 👏👏👏👏👏," and another said, "You all look fabulous! At all the ages, shapes and sizes! I need to pick up SI!"

This is a big moment for Gayle as she's been extremely candid about her weight loss and fitness journey throughout her career. Ahead, everything to know about how she shed almost 30 pounds and what her fitness routine looks like.

Gayle lost 25 pounds in 2016.

In 2016, Gayle was very transparent with her fans about dropping almost 30 pounds. "I feel really good," she said in an interview with E News . "I know theres more work to do but I feel really good."

She followed WeightWatchers, just like her bestie Oprah.

Gayle's BFF, Oprah Winfrey, served on WeightWatchers board of directors for nearly a decade before departing in February 2024, after opening up about using a semaglutide to help with her weight loss, per Women's Health.

WeightWatchers is a weight loss program based on community that works off of a personalized point system called PersonalPoints in hopes to help people lose weight while learning healthy eating habits, per WeightWatchers.

In June 2016, Gayle shared her weight loss with her Instagram followers. She posted a side-by-side picture of her weight on a scale.

"In 9 months have a baby??? orrrr lose 27.7 lbs on@weightwatchers I chose to count points-it all begin 9-12-15...almost there," she wrote in the caption.

Gayle's passionate about fitness.

Gayle is super into fitness and seems to have mastered her routine. She'll work out for an hour five to six days a week and do 30 minutes of cardio on the treadmill and 30 minutes of strength training, switching between free weights and resistance bands, according to Oprah.com.

The pub says she splits her workouts up throughout the week. One day she'll focus on upper body and the next she'll do a lower body workout. On the weekend, since she has more time, she'll often do both in one workout session. She doesn't skip out on her ab workouts either, and will do them at least 3 to 4 days a week.

Gayle gets her strength training exercises from the book, Business Plan for the Body by Jim Karas.

"Before I was doing cardio, cardio, cardio," she told Oprah.com. "And I wasn't losing weight the way I'm losing now. Jim said to me that building up muscle really does burn calories faster. For me, that's been the case."

While Gayle doesn't particularly love working out, she enjoys how it makes her look and feel.

"I try to figure out a way to get some kind of exercise," she told ELLE in 2020. "I've been reading this book about the joy of movement, and I do think there's something to that."

"I'm not saying I like working out. I'm just saying I do it," she added. "I do the treadmill, I do the elliptical and I do weights. But I'm not going to sit here and say, 'Oh, my god, I love it.'"

She hasn't discussed Ozempic.

While Gayle hasn't discussed using Ozempic or other weight loss medication, Oprah has been very transparent about using medication to aid in weight loss after not being able to on her own.

"I couldn’t work out anymore. I can’t climb any faster or run any faster. I was down to eating one meal a day. There’s nothing else I can do," Oprah expressed on CNN's King Charles.

Since implementing a weight-loss medication into her life, Oprah has learned more about her body and how it operates. In December 2023, Oprah shared with PEOPLE about how her view on weight loss medication has changed.

"I now use weight loss medication as I feel I need it, as a tool to manage not yo-yoing," she told the pub. "The fact that there's a medically-approved prescription for managing weight and staying healthier, in my lifetime, feels like relief, like redemption, like a gift, and not something to hide behind and once again be ridiculed for. I’m absolutely done with the shaming from other people and particularly myself."

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