Apple CEO Tim Cook 'Outed' as Gay by CNBC co-achor, Simon Hobbs on Live Television

Making mistakes on live national television is bad enough. Making one that involves a powerful and private man such as Tim Cook is another story already. On Friday morning, CNBC "Squawk on the Street," co-host Simon Hobbs "squawked" on Tim Cook's sexual orientation on national television. And because it was live, Hobbs cannot do the damage already done.

According to the Apple Insider, while on a heated discussion with New York Times columnist James Stewart regarding column on the absence of high-profile gay executives, Hobbs unintentionally outed Tim Cook and said the Apple CEO was "openly gay."

The topic was supposedly on Stewart's column on former BP chief John Browne, who recently penned a book relaying the tortured life he had for being a CEO and a closeted gay. After being outed by a tabloid, Browne resigned from being the CEO of a well-known multinational oil and gas company in 2007. Stewart said he was surprised to find out that Brown is the first executive to acknowledge being gay and shared that his column explains why a stigma on gay CEOs or gays in high levels of business still exist no matter how advanced civil rights have become.

"I just found it very, very fascinating," Stewart said. "Of course, there are gay CEOs in major companies, and I reached out to many them. I got an extremely cool reception - not one would allow to be named in the column."

This is the moment when Hobbs committed his gaffe. Hobbs jumps in and said,"I think Tim Cook is open about the fact he's gay at the head of Apple, isn't he," Hobbs asked. Following an awkward silence from the rest of the panel members, and an apparent shake of the head from Stewart, Hobbs tried to recover. "Oh, dear, was that an error? I thought not."

Co-anchor David Faber recognized the enormity of what happened and said, "Wow, I think you just...yeah." Hobbs tried cover for the slip by saying, "I think he's very open about it."

While this shocked majority, some already had an inkling of Cook's orientation long before this. Valley Wag reported last year that Cook is gay and just will not talk about it. His speech on human rights organized by Auburn University was quite telling. On that speech, he said: "Since these early days, I have seen and have experienced many types of discrimination and all of them were rooted in the fear of people that were different than the majority."

Whether Tim Cook will suffer BP chief John Browne's fate is a good question.