ABC forced an ailing Barbara Walters to quit “The View” in 2014, according to former co-host Lisa Ling.
In a recent interview, Ling recalled a conversation she had with Walters on the late broadcast journalist’s last day on the talk show.
“‘Barbara, in a couple of months, are you going to be lounging in a hammock in Tahiti?’” Ling said she asked Walters while they were off the air.
“And [Walters] just leaned over and whispered, ‘They’re making me quit,’” the CNN host claimed to the Cut in a story published March 13.
After starting her legendary career at NBC, Walters joined ABC in the 1970s and created “The View” in 1997. She co-hosted the roundtable show for 17 seasons and remained an executive producer until her death last year.
“I do not want to appear on another program or climb another mountain,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 2013 before retiring. “I want to instead sit on a sunny field and admire the very gifted women — and OK, some men too — who will be taking my place.
