In the October issue of O, Oprah admitted to a mysterious secret fear: balloons. Specifically, the sound of balloons popping, which “reminds me of gunfire,” Winfrey wrote. Last night, at the New Yorkers for Children Gala at Cipriani, Oprah’s partner-in-crime Gayle King told us that she’s known about Oprah’s globophobia (fear of balloons) for many years.
“Everybody has something that just sort of seems unusual, and does nothing to other people, but it scares us,” King said. For example: “I don’t like buttons,” King confessed. “I know; it’s so stupid. I just don’t like how they feel. Watch what I wear — I very, very seldom wear anything with buttons. And if I am, then they have to be covered.”
To clarify, King’s hang-up is with your standard, four-hole buttons. Finding jeans isn’t an issue, she said, because jeans have zippers, and there’s a difference between buttons and “those big brass things” on pants.
