Barbara Walters was a pioneer in broadcast journalism, shattering glass ceilings for the women who followed in her footsteps, including Oprah Winfrey, Meredith Vieira, Katie Couric, and Connie Chung. Still, her big career also had a dark side on the personal front.
An upcoming Hulu documentary, Barbara Walters Tell Me Everything, premieres on June 23 and explores her strained relationship with daughter Jackie. Parenthood was a difficult journey for Walters, who passed away at the age of 93 in 2022.
“She’d tell everyone, ‘I so admire your relationship with your children,’ ” former NBC correspondent Cynthia McFadden told People. “She was very regretful about her family life. It was something she felt like she couldn’t fix. So that was really tugging at her.”
Walters struggled with fertility with her second husband, Lee Guber, and her dream of motherhood finally came true in 1968 when they adopted Jackie. In the documentary, she proudly said, “My world came together. I mean, I was already on the Today Show. And I’d had three miscarriages, and now I had everything.”
THE VIEW, Barbara Walters, 1997-.
Courtesy Everett Collection
Still, the tug-of-war between her high-flying career, interviewing world leaders, and the daughter she loved so much, often conflicted with each other. Jackie had a very different personality from her high-achieving mother. According to McFadden, Walters was “career-driven,” but Jackie was content “not racing to the top.”
“They were just so dispositionally and physically unlike each other,” McFadden added. “It was a struggle. That’s not to say they didn’t love each other, but it wasn’t what she’d hoped for, and probably not what Jackie had hoped for either.”
Jackie has largely stayed out of the limelight, but she gave a rare interview with her mother in 2002 to then-NBC News reporter Jane Pauley. She spoke about feeling uncomfortable with her mother’s fame.
“I never felt like I fit into her world. Because everybody else around me at that time when I was growing up wanted to get ahead and achieve and get ahead,” Jackie explained. “She loves her work.”
After dealing with Jackie’s rebellious teen years, Walters and Jackie found a way to grow closer — but it was never the ideal mother-daughter relationship. For Walters, it was the heartbreak of her life.
“There is no question of our love for each other. None,” Walters said in 2002. “And it’s one of the reasons that she’s never particularly wanted to find her biological mother. It’s not, ‘Who’s my mother?’ I’m her mother.”
Before you go, click here to see celebrities who have spoken out about being estranged from family.
