In 2008, Barbara Walters opened up to the Associated Press about her relationship with her older sister, per HuffPost. She explained that Jackie’s mental condition affected her own childhood in that it ostracized her from other children. Walters told the AP, “It was a lonely, isolated childhood.”
While Jackie’s specific condition was never defined, ABC News speculated Jackie may have been autistic. Regardless of the specific diagnosis, the situation impressed upon Walters a need to take care of others and take control. “This is why I always felt that I had to work from an early age. I knew that my sister was going to be my responsibility. My nightmare was that my father was going to lose it all,” she explained, per ABC News. Walters said that while she wasn’t sure if she “resented” Jackie, she did resent that she could not have a normal life with her sister. “I couldn’t have birthday parties because she didn’t and I couldn’t join the Girl Scouts because she didn’t. My life was not normal to begin with because of my father and the whole show business.”
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Jackie died in 1985, per HuffPost, and it would take over two decades for Walters to publish her memoir revisiting her strained childhood.
