Oprah Winfrey would come out if she was gay.

The US media personality has been subject to speculation due to her close relationship with long-term friend Gayle King, but confirms if she was romantically involved with her she would be honest about it.

She said: "I'm not even kind of a lesbian. And the reason why the rumour irritates me is because it means that somebody must think I'm lying. That's number one.

"Number two, why would you want to hide it? That is not the way I run my life."

However, the 56-year-old - who is one of the richest women in the US - does think of the magazine editor as "the best friend everybody deserves".

Welling up, she tells Barbara Walters in a forthcoming ABC interview to be aired later today (09.12.10): "She is the sister everybody would want. She is the friend that everybody deserves. I don't know a better person.

"It's making me cry because I'm thinking about how much I probably have never told her that. I've never told her that."