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Katie Couric has revealed the savage dig that Barbara Walters once took at her – while doing herself down at the same time.
An upcoming Hulu documentary is about to lay bare the life and legacy of Barbara, the first woman anchor of a nightly news program on ABC.
Barbara died in 2022 at the age of 93 after a long and glittering career that ended when she withdrew from the public in 2019 while secretly suffering from dementia.
Now her friends and colleagues are spilling their secrets about the painful insecurities that lurked behind her confident and occasionally blunt persona.
Katie, 68, who came up as a news anchor decades after Barbara, was especially candid about the older woman’s misgivings about her looks.
In the documentary, Katie recalls that Barbara once mercilessly told her: ‘Oh, we’re so alike: Neither of us is that attractive,’ according to People.
Katie Couric has revealed the savage dig that Barbara Walters once took at her – while doing herself down at the same time
Katie herself became the first solo woman host of a nightly news broadcast on American network TV when she joined CBS in 2006 – three decades after Barbara achieved her milestone as the first woman co-anchor of an ABC nightly news series.
Over a decade earlier, Katie shot to stardom as one of the hosts of the Today show in 1991, and was trumpeted for her winning looks and ‘perky’ charm.
Following in Barbara’s lead, Katie – upon landing the Today show – made a point of demanding that she be given as many ‘big get’ interviews as her colleagues.
‘Not to sound too Helen Reddy-ish, but I felt like I had an obligation as a woman, and for the women who were watching, to have an equal role on the show, and not a subservient role,’ Katie told the New Yorker in 2005.
When Barbara died, Katie hailed her as ‘the OG of female broadcasters’ and praised her for having been ‘just as comfortable interviewing world leaders as she was Oscar winners,’ adding that her ‘body of work was ‘unparalleled.’
Katie remembered: ‘I was a lucky recipient of her kindness and encouragement. When I landed a big (impromptu) interview with President Bush, she wrote me a note that I still have framed in my office.’
The note read: ‘Dear Katie, You were terrific with Mrs. Bush (you knew far more than she did) and nabbing the President was a real coup. You are so darn good! Bravo!’
Katie dished: ‘As I wrote in my book, she liked to say we were similar—-that neither of us was particularly glamorous. I never quite knew how to take that! But the fact that Barbara saw some of her in me was nothing but a compliment. Thank you for everything, Barbara.’
Katie, 68, who came up as a news anchor decades after Barbara, was especially candid about the older woman’s misgivings about her looks
She made her way in TV, first on the Today show and then – by 1976 – as the first female nightly news anchor in the history of ABC, working with Harry Reasoner (left)
The upcoming movie is entitled Barbara Walters Tell Me Everything and is set to debut on June 23 on Hulu, exposing the inner life of the TV icon, who is pictured in 1964 working for NBC
The upcoming movie is entitled Barbara Walters Tell Me Everything and is set to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on Thursday before bowing on Hulu on June 23.
She grew up in Boston as the daughter of impresario Lou Walters, who ran the New York nightclub the Latin Quarter, which booked some of the most dazzling talents of the age ranging from Mae West to Frank Sinatra.
Ultimately, however, the nightclub business floundered and Barbara had to support the family, including her older special needs sister Jacqueline.
She made her way in TV, first on the Today show and then – by 1976 – as the first female nightly news anchor in the history of ABC.
But she received blisteringly cold treatment from her co-anchor Harry Reasoner, as she recalled in resurfaced old footage shown in the documentary.
‘I would walk into that studio, and Harry would be sitting with the stagehands, and they’d all crack jokes and ignore me. No one would talk to me. There was not a woman on the staff,’ Barbara explained.
She referred to the time that she worked with Harry as ‘the most painful period in my life,’ in the unearthed audio played in the upcoming film.
