Barbara Walters Biography
Barbara Walters full name Barbara Jill Walters, is an American broadcast journalist, author, and television personality. She is known for hosting various programs, among them, Today, The View, 20/20, and the ABC Evening News. She has however since retired as a full-time host and contributor although she continued to occasionally report for ABC News through 2015.
She went to Lawrence School, a public school in Brookline, Massachusetts, till the middle of her fifth grade, when her father moved the family to Miami Beach in 1939. In their new location, she also attended another public school. She went her eighth grade education at Ethical Culture Fieldston School after her father moved the family to New York City. The family then moved back to Miami Beach shortly afterwards before relocating to New York City again.
For her high school studies, Walters went to Birch Wathen School and graduated in 1947. She received a B.A. in English from Sarah Lawrence College in 1951. Immediately after college, she looked for work in New York City. She found work at a small advertising agency and after a year she began working at the NBC network affiliate in New York City, WNBT-TV (now WNBC). At the network, she did publicity and writing press releases.
In 1953, Walters started producing a 15-minute children’s program, Ask the Camera. It was directed by Roone Arledge. She also produced for TV host Igor Cassini/Cholly Knickerbocker, but left the network as a result of pressure from her boss to marry him, and his fist-fight with a man she preferred to date. Soon after, she produced the Eloise McElhone Show at WPIX before it was canceled in 1954. In 1955, she became a writer on The Morning Show at CBS.
In 1961, she joined NBC’s The Today Show as a writer and researcher after a few years of being a publicist with Tex McCrary Inc. as well as a writer at Redbook magazine. In a year, she had become a reporter-at-large developing, writing, and editing her own reports and interviews. She was not named co-host of the show until McGee’s death in 1974, when NBC officially designated Walters as the program’s first female co-host.
She anchored on the ABC Evening News with co-anchor Harry Reasoner from 1976–78. Walters is also known for her years on the ABC news magazine 20/20 where she reunited with former Today Show host Hugh Downs in 1979.
She is known for her “scoop” interviews and “personality journalism”. She managed to conduct a joint interview with Egypt’s President, Anwar Al Sadat, and Israel’s Prime Minister, Menachem Begin in November 1977. Her other interviews of world leaders include Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and his wife, Empress Farah Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, Russia’s Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, the UK’s Margaret Thatcher, China’s Jiang Zemin, King Hussein of Jordan, India’s Indira Gandhi, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Czechoslovakia’s Václav Havel and Libya’s Muammar al-Gaddafi, among many others.
She also had interviews with highly influential people, notably: pop icon Michael Jackson, actress Katharine Hepburn, Vogue editor Anna Wintour, and in 1980 Sir Laurence Olivier.
Barbara Walters The View
The View is a daytime talk show that Walters created in 1997 for which she was a co-host and co-executive producer with her business partner, Bill Geddie. It premiered on August 11, 1997 and Walters retired from being a co-host on the show on May 15, 2014. She has however returned as a guest co-host on an intermittent basis throughout 2014 and 2015.
She confirmed her retirement from television hosting and interviewing in May 2014, with the official announcement having been made on the May 13, 2013, episode of The View. During that same episode, she also announced that she would continue to the show’s executive producer for as long as it’s on the air.
An announcement was made on June 10, 2014 that she would be ‘coming out of retirement’ to do a special 20/20 interview with Peter Rodger, the father of Elliot Rodger who had committed the 2014 Isla Vista killings. After that interview, she has hosted special 20/20 episodes featuring interviews with Mary Kay Letourneau and Donald and Melania Trump as well as interviewing Donald Trump for ABC News.
Barbara Walters Age | How Old Is Barbara Walters
Walters was born on 25 September 1929 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. She is 89 years old as of 2018.
Barbara Walters Family | Barbara Walters Parents
The Today co-host was born in a family of four to Dena Seletsky and Louis Walters (born Louis Abraham Warmwater). She has one brother: Burton Walters and two sisters: Walda Walters Anderson and Jacqueline Walters.
Barbara Walters Husband | Barbara Walters Spouse
Walters has been married to three different men for a total of four times. Robert Henry Katz, a business executive and former Navy lieutenant was her first husband. The two wed on 20th June 1955 at The Plaza Hotel in New York City. They reportedly had an annulment in 1957, 11 months later.
She got married to her second husband, Lee Guber, a theatrical producer and theater owner on 8th December, 1963. They however got divorced in 1976 and have one daughter, Jacqueline Dena Guber. She was born in 1968 and adopted on the same year.
In 1981, she again got married, this time to Merv Adelson, the CEO of Lorimar Television. They too got divorced in 1984 and remarried again in 1986 but got divorced a second time in 1992.
Barbara Walters Daughter
Walters and her second ex-husband, theatrical producer Lee Guber adopted a baby girl that was named Jacqueline Dena after Walters’ sister and mother. Not much however is known about Jacqueline as she has managed to keep off the spotlight. This is partly because of her mother’s fame which has had some negative impact on her life.
She says that she had a troubled childhood being the daughter of a popular person. She was involved in substance abuse for years as well as partying as a teenager. She was sent in the wilderness of Idaho for intervention program by her mother and spent three years getting herself together. At 18, she took up her father’s last name to hide from her mother’s fame.
Barbara has also admitted that she has not had a good relationship with her daughter. She said, “On your deathbed, are you going to say, ‘I wish I spent more time in the office?’ No. You’ll say, ‘I wish I spent more time with my family,’ and I do feel that way. I wish I had spent more time with my Jackie.”
Barbara Walters Photos
Barbara WaltersBarbara Walters Net Worth
Walters is valued at $170 million.
Barbara Walters Health
During an episode of The View on 10th May, 2010, Walters announced that she would be undergoing open heart surgery to replace a faulty aortic valve. Her spokeswoman, Cindi Berger, said in a statement on May 14, 2010 that the procedure “went well, and the doctors are very pleased with the outcome.
Her health has declined over the time with reports emerging that she prefers to spend her days alone at her ritzy New York City apartment. Her doorman says that she has been refusing visitors. She allegedly alternates between her bed and wheelchair as she feels too frail and weak to see her friends.
The last time she was seen in public was in July 2016 and her family and friends fear that she has given up on life as she appears to be suffering from signs of advanced dementia.
She is said to recognize very few things these days and rarely knows her own name. This is according to a source close to her.
Barbara Walters Twitter
Barbara Walters Death
Barbara Walters preparing for her own funeral as she is ready for her demise
Published: 22nd October 2018
The eighty-nine-year-old is at the fag end of her life and is now planning for her funeral, as per a report by Radar Online. An insider said:
“Barbara is a total control freak, so it should be no surprise that she’s producing her funeral,”
She is putting in every detail of her funeral rites-venue, flowers, musical performance, and guests. Already, a video package has been prepared and it highlights her life and career. She had written, edited and documented the steps of her funeral to the minutest detail.
Her last apperance in public was in mid-2016. She had earlier stopped taking visitors but now has eased the entry for her friends and fans since she feels that it might be the last time that her friends and fans might meet her.
She is ready for her death and feels that she has lived well and to the fullest.