Early Life
Barbara Jill Walters, a journalist and writer, was born on September 25, 1929, in Boston, the daughter of Dena Seletsky Walters and nightclub owner Lou Walters. She had two siblings: Jacqueline, who was born with developmental disabilities and died in 1985, and Burton, who died of pneumonia in 1932. Walters was born Jewish, despite the fact that her parents were not practicing Jews.
Lou established a nightclub franchise in 1937, expanding his business from Boston to Miami Beach, Florida. As a result, Walters attended New York City’s Fieldston and Birch Wathen private schools before graduating from Miami Beach High School in 1947. Walters grew up in a celebrity-filled environment, which has been attributed to her easygoing demeanor when interviewing celebrities.
Walters earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, in 1953. After working as a secretary for a short time, she secured her first position in journalism as the assistant of WRCA-TV publicity director and Republican activist Tex McCary. Walters moved to CBS after honing her writing and production abilities at the NBC station. She wrote for the network’s Morning Show.
Working for the ‘Today’ Show
NBC hired Walters as a researcher and writer for its successful Today show in 1961. Her first projects were stories geared for female audiences. Within a few months, however, she successfully argued for a groundbreaking assignment to accompany First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy on a journey to India and Pakistan. Walters was given more responsibilities at the network as a result of the investigation.
By 1964, Walters had become a fixture on the Today show, co-starring with Hugh Downs and, later, Frank McGee, and had earned the moniker “Today girl.” Despite functioning as a co-host, she wasn’t granted official billing until 1974, and she couldn’t ask questions of the show’s “serious” guests until the male co-host finished his.
Becoming a Household Name
Walters stayed on the show for 11 years, perfecting her characteristic probing-yet-casual interviewing style. By 1972, she had established herself as a capable journalist, and she was selected to be a member of the press corps that accompanied President Richard Nixon on his historic journey to China. She got her first Daytime Entertainment Emmy Award for best host in a discussion show in 1975.
Walters accepted a job at ABC in 1976 as the first woman co-anchor of a network evening news program, enticed by an unprecedented $1 million yearly pay. That same year, she was appointed to moderate the third and final presidential debate between incumbent President Gerald Ford and challenger Jimmy Carter.
In 1976, Walters also debuted the first of a series of Barbara Walters Specials. President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter were featured in the first interview program. The following year, she arranged the first joint interview between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
During this time, Walters sharpened her reporting skills and developed her probing interview approach. She became noted for her deftly crafted inquiries, which frequently caught her subjects off guard and revealed extraordinary openness. Her success has been credited to her dogged pursuit of the “first interview” from a diverse spectrum of people, an intuitive ability to ask the questions the public wants to hear, and her skill to avoid alienating the people she interviews.
Many of Walters’ male coworkers were furious and publicly dismissive of her sudden success. Among the most vocal was her ABC co-anchor, Harry Reasoner, whose patronizing demeanor could be seen on camera. Critics questioned Walters’ credentials as a serious journalist and questioned the move as a PR stunt by ABC News to capitalize on Walters’ “star status.”
Walters’ credibility issues were exacerbated by Gilda Radner’s famous Saturday Night Live impersonation as Baba Wawa, in which Radner accentuated Walters’ minor speech impediment. Although ABC’s market research revealed that male news anchors were not universally favoured by audiences, the ratings for the evening news program were dismal, and Walters was fired within two years.
Working for ABC’s ’20/20′
Walters began working as a part-time journalist for the ABC news show 20/20 in 1979. In 1980, she landed an exclusive interview with former President Richard Nixon, his first television appearance since his resignation in 1974. By the fall of 1981, she was a frequent contributor to the show.
In 1984, she and longtime Today program co-host Hugh Downs were promoted to co-host. Downs left the show in 1999, but Walters continued to co-host it with John Miller and, later, John Stossel. Walters’ contract with ABC News was extended for another five years in September 2000. Her reported annual compensation of $12 million makes her the highest-paid news anchor in history. Walters stepped down as co-host of 20/20 in September 2004, at the age of 73.
Creating ‘The View’ and Retirement
Walters co-executive produced and co-hosted The View, a mid-morning chat show, which debuted in August 1997. The show covers five women’s distinct viewpoints on politics, family, careers, and general public-interest issues. The panel of women has included reporter Lisa Ling, attorney Star Jones, journalist and working mother Meredith Vieira, and comedian Joy Behar at various times. Several other renowned women, including Whoopi Goldberg, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Sherri Shepherd, Rosie O’Donnell, and Debbie Matenopoulos, have been on the show’s panel over the years.
Walters made news in 2006 when she appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and revealed numerous “secrets” from her memoir, Audition, including her affair with then-U.S. Senator Edward Brooke in the 1970s. Walters also revealed her resentment of former View co-host Jones in the book, citing Jones’ weight loss and departure from the talk program.
Walters announced her retirement from television journalism in May 2013. Walters told the Los Angeles Times, “I don’t want to appear on another program or climb another mountain.” Instead, I’d want to sit on a sunny field and admire the very talented women (and, yes, some guys) who will be taking my place.” Her final appearance on The View as a full-time co-host was on May 16, 2014, while she remained an executive producer and occasional guest host.
Famous Interviews
Walters honed the skills of “personality journalism” and “being the first” interviewees throughout the years. She was chastised for using personal emotion to boost ratings and for relying on softball questions. However, Walters’ extensive and diverse variety of interviews provides a detailed account of the characters who shaped the second half of the twentieth century.
Walters did the first interview with Christopher Reeve following his paralysis in a horseback riding accident in 1995. The show got the renowned George Foster Peabody Award the following April. Walters’ two-hour exclusive with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky was the highest-rated news program ever broadcast on a single network in 1999.
Walters has done important interviews with international leaders, giving viewers a more three-dimensional perspective on these larger-than-life figures. They include Iran’s Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Margaret Thatcher, the UK’s first female prime minister, the Dalai Lama, Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s first post-communist president, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Walters questioned Libyan dictator Muammar al-Gadhafi during an interview, saying, “In America, we read that you are unstable.” We’ve read that you’re insane.” She pressed Fidel Castro on the lack of press freedom in Cuba, and he agreed.
She traveled to Saudi Arabia shortly after the 9/11 attacks to interview Osama bin Laden’s brother, as well as Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud and several Saudi middle-class men and women. Overall, the interviews painted a contrasting picture of the Saudi people and their worldview at a time when most Americans were troubled by the fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis.
Awards
Throughout her distinguished career, Walters received numerous awards, including the Overseas Press Club’s highest honor, the President’s Award, in 1988; induction into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 1990; the Lowell Thomas Award for a career in journalism excellence in 1990; the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Women’s Media Foundation in 1991; the Muse Award from New York Women in Film and Television in 1997; and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Women’s Media Foundation in
Honorary doctorates have also been bestowed to Walters by Ben-Gurion University in Jerusalem, Hofstra University, Marymount College, Ohio State University, Sarah Lawrence College, Temple University, and Wheaton College.
Personal Life
Walters was married to three different men and had several high-profile relationships, including one with then-U.S. Senator Edward Brooke in the 1970s. She also dated Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and Virginia Senator John Warner.
Her first husband was businessman Robert Henry Katz. They married in 1955, but divorced in 1958.
Walters married theatre producer Lee Guber in 1963. They called their baby Jacqueline Dena after Walters’ sister and mother. In 1976, Walters and Guber divorced.
Merv Adelson, a developer-turned-TV producer, was Walters’ third spouse. They were married in 1986 and divorced in 1992. Several news articles claim that Walters and Adelson were married in the 1980s, however Walters told The New York Times in 2015 that they were only married once.
Walters continued to serve as a guest host on The View and in specials after her official retirement in 2014. She interviewed presidential candidate Donald Trump and his wife Melania in November 2015.
She underwent successful cardiac surgery in May 2010.She suffered from memory loss near the end of her life, according to Variety. Walters died on December 30, 2022, at the age of 93, at her home in New York City.