Snoop Dogg publicly apologized to Gayle King on Wednesday after he verbally attacked her on social media for bringing up the rape allegations against the late Kobe Bryant in an interview with WNBA’s Lisa Leslie.
In an interview clip from CBS This Morning last week, King asked Leslie if she thought Bryant’s legacy might be “complicated” by a 2003 sexual assault charge against him, which was ultimately dropped after the accuser declined to testify. A civil suit followed, which was settled. Bryant admitted to adultery, but claimed it was consensual. In a separate incident, a Washington Post journalist also reportedly received death threats for simply bringing up the allegations by tweeting a link to a 2016 Daily Beast story, which recounted the accuser’s version of the events.
After King and Leslie’s interview clip was shared, Snoop Dogg appeared to threaten King in a video, saying “Back off, bitch, before we come get you.” Following the rapper’s post, King apparently received a number of death threats, according to her close friend Oprah Winfrey.
On Wednesday, the rapper took to Instagram to apologize. “Two wrongs don’t make no right,” he said. “When you’re wrong, you gotta fix it.” Snoop Dogg admitted that he treated King “in a derogatory manner based off emotions” and that he “overreacted.” “I was raised way better than that,” he said. “So, I would like to apologize to you publicly for the language that I used and calling you out of your name and just being disrespectful.”