Oprah nearly gave Gayle King 'a heart attack' with surprise 70th birthday extravaganza

Oprah pulled off a surprise for best friend Gayle King's 70th birthday that was so good, she was afraid the "CBS Mornings" co-host would have a heart attack.

On Friday night, Oprah convinced King to go to New York City restaurant Ci Siamo under the guise of a holiday party. Little did the TV journalist know, a horde of friends and family members was lying in wait to celebrate her milestone birthday.

An Instagram video the two friends posted on Saturday showed the moment King realized the big reveal. When King noticed the crowd gathered for her, she threw her purse on the bar and hobbled back in shock, with her hand clutching her chest.

In the caption, Oprah explained the party's organizers had to make up stories and tell King lies to keep the secret. She wrote: "Happy birthday @gayleking, sorry we almost gave you a heart attack😂."

Tina Knowles, Robert De Niro, Katy Perry, David Oyelowo, Robin Roberts, Niecy Nash-Betts, Brooke Shields, Stephen Colbert and Dave Chappelle were among the guests at the star-studded bash.

In Instagram posts recapping the event, King reacted to the surprise and said she was "still floating" from the festivities.

"Talk about a surprise!!! I thought I was going to @oprah’s holiday dinner for the @oprahdaily team at her favorite restaurant @cisiamonyc and then THIS happened …." King wrote alongside the video of her reaction to the surprise party.

"Unbeknownst to me it was a surprise party six months in the making and I had no idea! Everybody kept the secret which made this party even more special to me! More to come…." she wrote in another post. She shared a message to her best friend in a follow-up post, whose caption read: "@oprah is theeeeeeee best of the best! There will be no words to properly thank her for my 70th extravaganza."

"I feel like she gave me the party I wanted HER to have back in January," King's caption continued. "It was a good ole fashion dance party with dancing and food and good friends. I rarely feel like the belle of the ball but I sure did that night….. still floating 🥳🥳🥳."

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Oprah says 'the world is a better place' with Gayle King

In a speech to the crowd at the party, Oprah shared how important her five-decade friendship with Gayle King is.

"There's nobody in the world like Gayle King. Next year marks a half a century that we have been friends. And in all those years, there's never been an argument, a disruption or any kind of jealousy or bad feelings," Oprah said in one of the videos she posted.

"In 50 years, we have been in sync, in each other's corner, supporting of one another, looking forward to the best that can happen for each other. The one person in my life who has always been more overjoyed for anything that happens than me," Oprah continued. "And now she sits on the seat at 'CBS Mornings,' it's exactly the seat she's supposed to hold in the world right now. The world is a better place for the joy that Gayle brings everyone."

In a heartfelt note in a separate Instagram post with photo and video highlights from the event, Oprah explained why it was important for them to throw "a birthday blowout" for King.

"@gayleking’s birthday is on December 28, right in the middle of Christmas and New Year’s. She doesn’t like to inconvenience anyone so we bake her favorite yellow cake and her favorite food (Dover sole and hot crescent rolls)," she wrote in the caption. "But this year we threw her a birthday blowout with all the people that love her. It was a Gayle love fest—and she deserves every bit of it 💛💛💛."

Addressing her guests, King thanked everyone who was able to make it out before the holidays, according to one of the videos Oprah posted.

"I just can't believe that you pulled this off. I can't believe that you guys came for me. My birthday is December 28, and it's always that week between Christmas and New Year. I never want to inconvenience anybody. I never want to have anything," King said. "We always have dinner at Oprah's and wherever we are over the Christmas holiday, and I'm always very, very happy with that. So I wasn't planning anything other than that."

"I saw Katy Perry; I said, 'Katy, I can't believe you came!' She goes, 'I have to be on stage at Madison Square Garden in an hour.' She said, 'But you're a good bitch, so I came,'" King relayed to the laughing crowd. "I'm just blown away by the people that have taken their time just to come for me tonight. ... I feel the love; I really do."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Oprah shocks Gayle King with surprise 70th birthday party