Barbara Walters Planning to Retire Next Year

Veteran newswoman and TV personality is eyeing a May 2014 end date for her run on The View

By Natalie Finn Mar 28, 2013 9:17 PMTags
Barbara WaltersSteve Granitz/WireImage.com

Barbara Walters is said to be getting ready to call it a career—and one heck of a career at that!

The veteran newswoman and cohost of The View is planning to retire in May 2014, according to various outlets, including The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline.

While the 83-year-old Walters rarely shows outward signs of slowing down, she has been plagued by some health issues in recent months, including a bang on the head suffered in a fall and then a case of shingles.

"People have said I should have my head examined. I did and I'm fine," Walters cracked on her return to The View earlier this month after a six-week medical leave.

The rumor that she was considering packing it in for good actually started back in December 2011 after she was overheard telling President Barack Obama, during an interview with him for ABC News, "I need one more interview with you because I'm retiring next year."

An ABC News exec told E! News at the time, "I just got off the phone with Barbara Walters and she's joked that she's retiring every year since the Clinton administration."

After starting her career in magazine journalism, Walters went to work for NBC's Today in 1961 as a writer-researcher and went on to become the show's first female cohost in 1974.

She moved to ABC in 1976 and that's where she stayed, helming 20/20 for 25 years, first with Hugh Downs and then solo. 

Walters cocreated The View in 1997 and has been doing that ever since, along with her frequent interview specials, including her reveal of the 10 Most Fascinating People of the Year.

No matter when the woman voted No. 34 on TV Guide's list of the 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time chooses to go, The View is going to look mighty different next year. Joy Behar is leaving after her contract expires in August and, though Walters herself denied it, Elisabeth Hasselbeck is rumored to be next.