Gayle King Is Nearly Unrecognizable Under All That Makeup

Gayle King has had her fair share of cosmetic mishaps. After all, there's a reason why she made our list of biggest news anchor makeup fails in 2024. But in a picture she posted on her Instagram in 2025, King avoided another potential makeup disaster by wearing none at all. She posed for a photo alongside Sarah Snook to celebrate the "Succession" star's performance in her Broadway play "The Picture of Dorian Gray." Although the focus was supposed to be on Snook, we did a double-take when we noticed King wasn't wearing her signature makeup. The "CBS Mornings" host seemingly went to the show without any of the foundation we often see her wear when in front of the camera.

King also ditched the eyeliner and exaggerated lashes. To complete the look, she showed off the color of her lips by avoiding lipstick and gloss entirely. However, toning down the glamor didn't make King's transformation any less stunning. In fact, she didn't lose an ounce of elegance when going all-natural. She just looked like a complete stranger who was equally as gorgeous as the King we all know.

Because of Gayle King's fame, she's used to being recognized in public. If she's not recognized as herself when walking among us, King's at least constantly mistaken for fellow superstar news anchor Hoda Kotb. But the never-ending attention stardom brings can sometimes be exhausting for celebrities. Fortunately, King has a get-out-of-fame-free card if she ever gets tired of being noticed and simply wants to blend in. All she has to do is abandon her makeup, which she's done on quite a few occasions in her day-to-day life.

King once revealed how truly unrecognizable she is without a cosmetic touch-up. "I have experiences when I'm walking around outside and people will hear me talk, and they say, 'You kind of sound like Gayle King, are you her?' And I go, 'Yes.' And then they say, 'Are you in disguise?' 'No, this is my face. This is my natural beauty,'" she said on an episode of "The Drew Barrymore Show." But although she acknowledged the stark contrast between her makeup and her makeup-free self, the Maryland native clarified that she wasn't as married to cosmetics as some might've thought. "Just for someone to say, 'Are you in disguise,' is an indication of how drastically I think I look without makeup. But I don't want to be a slave to it," she said.