After landing back in West Texas, King said: “I cannot even believe what I saw”

Oprah Winfrey New Shepard Mission NS-31 Webcast

Oprah Winfrey at the Blue Origin launch on Monday, April 14. Photo: Blue Origin/Youtube

Oprah Winfrey shed a few tears as she watched best friend Gayle King blast off to space on Monday, April 14.

Winfrey, 71, was among the attendees at the launch site in West Texas, outside El Paso, as an all-female flight crew took off on a Blue Origin rocket for a brief trip to the edge of space.

The iconic TV host was seen looking visibly emotional at the event.

King, 70, was joined on the New Shepard rocket by five others: Katy Perry and Lauren Sánchez (whose fiancé, Jeff Bezos, founded Blue Origin) as well as former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautics research scientist Amanda Nguyen and film producer Kerianne Flynn.

A handout photo published on April 14, 2025 on the X account of Blue Origin, shows (clockwise from L) US entrepreneur Lauren Sanchez, former NASA scientist Amanda Nguyen, singer Katy Perry, TV presenter Gale King, former NASA scientist Aisha Bowe and film producer Kerianne Flynn posing in their space suits ahead of the all-woman sub-orbital mission aboard the New Shepard rocket.; This screen grab taken from a Blue Origin broadcast shows Blue Origin New Shepard's flight NS-31 lift off from Launch Site One in Van Horn, West Texas, April 14, 2025

The Blue Origin rocket launch on Monday, April 14.  X ACCOUNT OF BLUE ORIGIN/AFP via Getty; BLUE ORIGIN/AFP via Getty Images

Ahead of launch, Winfrey spoke on the Blue Origin livestream about King taking the trip and what advice she shared with her.

“It goes beyond this moment of just going up in space. I think this will be an everlasting experience,” Winfrey said. “Gayle has been there for me for hundreds of events — I can’t even remember them. But none of us will ever forget this day.”

King had looked nervous beforehand but after landing, she said she was still “floating.”

“I cannot even believe what I saw,” she said, noting that she felt proud of herself for something so adventurous.

“Up there,” high above the Earth, King said it was “quiet” and “peaceful.”

After this, she quipped, she might have her ears pierced because she was always so scared — but now she can “take on anything.”