Oprah Winfrey stuns BFF with surprise birthday party

Oprah Winfrey has surprised her best friend of 50 years, Gayle King, with a secret 70th birthday party.

The billionaire media mogul kicked off her pal's celebration two weeks early by covertly bringing together the CBS Mornings co-host's friends and family for a bash at Italian restaurant Ci Siamo in Manhattan.

"My bestie of 50 years is turning 70 so we gathered everyone that loved her to celebrate. Hard thing to surprise her, O the stories we have made up, the lies we have told to keep this a secret," Winfrey captioned a video of the big reveal on Instagram.

"Happy birthday @gayleking, sorry we almost gave you a heart attack."

King then took to her own Instagram account to share the same clip along with details about the lie that Winfrey told her to keep the birthday party under wraps.

"Talk about a surprise! I thought I was going to @oprah's holiday dinner for the @oprahdaily team at her favourite restaurant @cisiamonyc and then THIS happened..." the broadcast journalist captioned the post.

Winfrey and King were seen walking arm-in-arm into the restaurant when the large crowd shouted "Surprise!" at the birthday girl, who became visibly shocked.