Before the car giveaway, Oprah insisted on wearing a red suit to match the bows
Key takeaways:
- Oprah Winfrey's famous red suit, Gayle King was initially unimpressed, which she wore in her unforgettable car giveaway.
- The talk show host was so particular that she had her staff replace the bows on the cars with larger ones the night before the show.
Oprah Winfrey's famous red suit, which she wore in her unforgettable car giveaway, did not impress Gayle King at first.
In the premiere episode of PEOPLE's Pop Cultured, King discusses the significance of Winfrey's outfit during her famous "You Get a Car!" giveaway on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2004.
"Oprah is a girl who will inform you all the time, love is in the details," King, 67, presents, referencing Winfrey's obsessive attention to detail for the giveaway. "She wanted to make certain that each car had a bow, not just any bow. It had to be a jumbo red bow with an oversized bow."
The talk show host was so specific that she had her staff replace the bows on the automobiles with larger ones the night before the show. Winfrey also paid close attention to the color of the bow to make sure her outfit matched perfectly.
King recalled, "I remember her looking at various shades of red to ensure it was the right shade of red." "It was a massive event."
Winfrey presented her outfit to King after finally deciding what to wear. "You're not going to wear that, are you?" King responded in true best friend fashion.
"'It'll be a fantastic picture,' she predicted. With the red, it'll be a fantastic picture,' says the artist." King recalls their discussion. "She might have said something along the lines of, 'It won't jar the eye.'"
Fans know that Winfrey went against her instincts and wore the iconic red suit, which has since been immortalized in millions of memes.
"To be honest, she could have sat upon that damn car buck naked and looked just as good," King jokes.
King flew from Connecticut to Chicago on the big reveal to witness the historic event.
"I had to see it for myself," she says, adding that Winfrey was equally enthralled. "I don't think Oprah might sleep that night as she was so enthusiastic about what was going to happen the next day," says the source.
It became one of the more memorable giveaways in the history of daytime television after Winfrey said those now-famous words on the show. The Pontiac G6 was valued at just under $30,000 per person, for a total of $7 million given away by the talk show host.
In the episode, Winfrey says, "That was one of the happiest days of my life." "It drives me so pleased to see other people happy and to be able to contribute to that happiness. That is one of my greatest joys in life."