ABC News anchor Barbara Walters is making it official: she will be retiring in 2014. We reported that Walters was set to retire in 2014 back in March (reporting which Walters tiptoed around), but now it is a done deal. Walters is expected to address her retirement on “The View” Monday.
Walters will retire from her on-camera duties at both ABC News and “The View” in the Summer of 2014, with a number of specials leading up to her retirement, including a career retrospective, a 20 years of “10 Most Fascinating” special and an Oscars special. She will remain as EP of “The View,” which she co-created.
“I am very happy with my decision and look forward to a wonderful and special year ahead both on ‘The View’ and with ABC News,” Walters says in a statement. “I created ‘The View’ and am delighted it will last beyond my leaving it.”
Walters is a TV legend, shattering glass ceilings and becoming one of the first TV news anchors to become truly public figures. She began her career at NBC’s “Today” in 1961, joining ABC News in what was a blockbuster deal in 1976.
“There’s only one Barbara Walters,” says ABC News President Ben Sherwood in a statement. “And we look forward to making her final year on television as remarkable, path-breaking and news-making as Barbara herself. Barbara will always have a home at ABC News and we look forward to a year befitting her brilliant career, filled with exclusive interviews, great adventures and indelible memories.”
Earlier this year Walters had a health scare after taking a fall in the British Ambassador’s residence, only to discover that she had contracted chicken pox. The illness kept her off of ABC and “The View” for a few months, and she returned in early March.