Veteran television journalist Barbara Walters died at the age of 93 back in 2022 after reportedly enduring a private battle with dementia. But her former View co-host Jenny McCarthy claims there were early signs of her deteriorating health when they were working together on the ABC talk show years before her passing.
During a recent appearance on Maria Menounos’ Heal Squad podcast, per Us Weekly, McCarthy said she was hired onto The View to be the “pop culture buzzy girl” as the show was pivoting to a more lighthearted approach.
“I was hired to bring pop culture to The View,” she said. “They got rid of, at the time, Joy [Behar] and Elisabeth [Hasselbeck]. They wanted to do a whole flip of the show and lighten it up.”
She recalled an incident where, soon after Walters interviewed Katy Perry for a special, the journalist could not remember who she was. “Who’s Katy Perry?” Walters reportedly asked after the singer was named in conversation.
“It was the first sign that I realized that Barbara was suffering from beginning stages of dementia,” McCarthy told Menounos on the show. “I was like, ‘Oh shit.’ It was literally not even a week into the show. They were like, ‘We’re flipping it. There’s no more pop culture. We’re going back to politics.’”
McCarthy alleged that the change was made because “[Barbara] knew politics but she didn’t know pop culture.”
Though there were rumors that Walters struggled with dementia in her final years, the diagnosis was never publicly confirmed.
McCarthy was one of several celebrities to co-host The View over the years since Walters created the hit ABC talk show. She was a co-host alongside Sherri Shepherd and Whoopi Goldberg from 2013 to 2014. McCarthy was fired just a year later at the same time as Walters made her exit from the show.
McCarthy told Menounos that being on The View was “the hardest job in the world.” But when Walters died, the Masked Singer host thanked her for the opportunity.
“My Dear Barbara, Thank you for your love, guidance, support, nurturing and for making a seat for me at ‘the table,’” she wrote, per The Daily Mail.
“Your impact on the world is immeasurable. Your impact on me will never be forgotten,” she added. “You will forever be an icon, in every sense of the word, and a most beloved friend to me. Love you always, Jenny. Rest peacefully.”
