Barbara Walters Biography
Barbara Walters, born as Barbara Jill Walters, is a former American broadcast journalist, author, and television personality known for her ability to interview audiences and her popularity.
She served as the anchor, including Today, The View, 20/20, and the ABC Evening News, of various TV programs. All told, from 1952 until 2015, Walters was a working journalist. Walters started her career as a writer and segment producer of women’s interest stories on The Today Show in the early 1960s. Her success with audiences resulted in Walters gaining more airtime, and she became co-host of the show in 1974, the first woman to hold such a position on an American news program.
In 1976, by becoming the first female co-anchor of a network evening news program, alongside Harry Reasoner on the ABC Evening News, she continued to be a pioneer for women in broadcasting. She served as a director and co-host of the ABC 20/20 news magazine from 1979 to 2004. She was also known for an annual special, Barbara Walters’ 10 Most Interesting People, which aired on ABC.
Barbara Walters Age
Walters was born on September 25, 1929, in Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
Barbara Walters Height
She stands at a height of 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 meters) and weighs 125 lbs (57 Kg).
Barbara Walters Family
Walters is the daughter of Dena Seletsky and the late Louis Walters (born Louis Abraham Warmwater) a former British-born American booking agent, theatrical producer, and the founder of the famed Latin Quarter nightclub in New York. She has three siblings; one brother Burton Walters and two sisters Walda Walters Anderson and Jacqueline Walters.
Her father had made and lost many fortunes in his time in show business, according to Walters. He was a booking agent, and his work was not very secure, unlike her uncles, who were in the shoe and dress business. Walters remembers her father during the good times, taking her to the rehearsals of the night club shows he directed and produced. The actors and dancers were going to make a big deal about her and twirl her around before she got dizzy. Then she said her dad would take her out for their favorite hot dogs.
Barbara Walters Husband
Walters has been through three marital relationships with separate men over the course of her life for a total of four occasions. Her first husband was Robert Henry Katz, a company executive, and a retired Navy lieutenant. The two were married at The Plaza Hotel in New York City on June 20th, 1955. In 1957, 11 months later, they allegedly had an annulment.
On December 8th, 1963, she married her second husband, Lee Guber, a theatrical producer and theater owner. However, in 1976, they divorced and had one daughter, Jacqueline Dena Guber. Born in 1968, she was adopted in the same year. She got married again in 1981, this time to Merv Adelson, Lorimar Television’s CEO. They were both divorced in 1984 and remarried again in 1986, but in 1992 they were divorced a second time.
Barbara Walters Daughter
Walters and her second ex-husband adopted a daughter Jacqueline Dena who was named 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 was the daughter of a famous individual who had a troubled childhood. For years, she was involved in drug abuse as well as drinking as a teenager. Her mother sent her to the forest of Idaho for an intervention program, where she spent three years coming together. She took up her father’s last name at 18, to hide from the popularity of her mother.
Barbara also confessed to not having 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 Education
Walters 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 for 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 afterward 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.
Barbara Walters The View
The View is a daytime talk show that Walters produced with her business partner, Bill Geddie, in 1997, for which she was a co-host and co-executive producer. It debuted on August 11, 1997, and on May 15, 2014, Walters retired from co-hosting the program. However, she returned on a sporadic basis during 2014 and 2015 as a guest co-host.
She announced her retirement from hosting and interviewing television in May 2014, with the official announcement being made on The View episode, May 13, 2013. She also revealed during the same episode that she will continue to be the executive producer of the show for as long as it is on the air.
On June 10, 2014, an announcement was made that she will ‘come out of retirement’ to do a special 20/20 interview with Peter Rodger, Elliot Rodger’s father who committed the murders of Isla Vista in 2014. After that segment, she hosted special episodes of 20/20 featuring interviews with Mary Kay Letourneau and Donald and Melania Trump, as well as ABC News interviews with Donald Trump.
Barbara Walters Health
In May 2010, in order to repair a damaged aortic valve, Walters said she would have open-heart surgery. And though she was symptom-free, she had known for quite a while that she was suffering from aortic valve stenosis. Four days later, Walters’ spokesperson, Cindi Berger, said that the operation to repair the defective heart valve “went well, and the doctors are very happy with the outcome.”
It was announced on July 9, 2010, that Walters would return in September 2010 to The View and her Sirius XM satellite show, Here’s Barbara. Four years later, Walters officially withdrew from both series.
Barbara Walters Salary
Walters received a salary estimated to be about $1 million annually.
Barbara Walters Net Worth
Walters has a net worth of around $170 million.