Joy Behar paid tribute to her former The View co-star Barbara Walters after the legendary journalist passed away at age 93 on Friday.
The 80-year-old comedian and talk show host spoke about her during an interview with Good Morning America on Saturday.
Though she was not in-studio, Behar called in to the show to talk about her close personal friend and colleague.
Tribute: Joy Behar paid tribute to her former The View co-star Barbara Walters after the legendary journalist passed away at age 93 on Friday (pictured 2006)
‘She’s very much the role model for a lot of people in showbiz and the news world for sure,’ she said of Walters. ‘She had a work ethic you couldn’t deny. She was always prepared and she was always working on her material. She never went out there and didn’t know what she was doing.’
Behar revealed that Walters herself picked her for the show after she saw one of Behar’s comedy shows.
‘She could have a laugh, have fun, tell a dirty joke,’ Behar recalled. ‘She was a lot of fun. We were pals. We’ve had a lot of laughs on camera and off camera.’
Behar also joked that Walters landed so many high-profile interviews because she ‘never went to the bathroom.’
‘She had an incredible bladder,’ she continued. ‘And that’s why she could always jump on those interviews before anybody else did.’
‘Role model’: ‘She’s very much the role model for a lot of people in showbiz and the news world for sure,’ she said of Walters (pictured 2003)
‘Pals’: ‘She could have a laugh, have fun, tell a dirty joke,’ Behar recalled. ‘She was a lot of fun. We were pals. We’ve had a lot of laughs on camera and off camera (L to R: Star Jones, Walters, Meredith Vieira and Behar pictured 2003)
As with many of her The View co-stars, Behar and Walters didn’t always get along perfectly.
Earlier this year, Behar relayed a story where she admitted to nearly being fired by Walters over a ‘honest mistake.’
As Behar explained during Behind the Table: A View Reunion, she let slip that Rosie O’Donnell would be joining the show in 2006.
She then received an angry call from Walters who called her a ‘loose cannon’ and said she was ‘not renewing’ Behar’s contract.
‘For a minute, I was stunned,’ Behar said. ‘I was like, “Really? For that?”‘
It seems Walters eventually cooled off since Behar kept her job, and still appears on The View to this day.
Not a perfect relationship: As with many of her The View co-stars, Behar and Walters didn’t always get along perfectly
‘Honest mistake’: Earlier this year, Behar relayed a story where she admitted to nearly being fired by Walters over a ‘honest mistake’ (pictured 2007)
Behar isn’t the only The View star to heap praise on the late, great Boston native. Meghan McCain, Star Jones, Rosie O’Donnell, Jenny McCarthy and many more, shared their respects for the iconic figure.
Walters was one of the few unchanging aspects of the series, which she created in 1997 and co-hosted from its first season through 2014, though she continued on as a producer.
McCain, who appeared on the show from 2017 to 2021 — after Walters had moved on — still showed her respects to the veteran journalist on Twitter.
‘Barbara Walters will always be known as a trail blazer,’ she wrote. ‘Her hard hitting questions and welcoming demeanor made her a household name and leader in American journalism.’
She added that Walters’ ‘creation of The View is something I will always be appreciative of’ before concluding, ‘Rest in peace you will forever be an icon.’
Getting a call: She received an angry call from Walters who called her a ‘loose cannon’ and said she was ‘not renewing’ Behar’s contract (L to R: Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Barbara Walters and Joy Behar pictured 2007)
Honoring her: Barbara Walters was serenaded by numerous past and present co-hosts on The View, which she created in 1997, following her death on Friday at age 93; seen with (L–R) Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Rosie O’Donnell and Joy Behar
Jenny McCarthy, who appeared on the series from 2013–2014, at the end of Walters’ tenure, shared a playful version of a photo of the TV legend hugging her from behind on set, while Sherri Shepherd let out a big laugh.
‘My Dear Barbara, Thank you for your love, guidance, support, nurturing and for making a seat for me at “the table,”‘ McCarthy wrote.
‘Your impact on the world is immeasurable. Your impact on me will never be forgotten,’ she continued. ‘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.’
Depsite Jenny’s moving tribute, she had much harsher words to describe her time on The View while speaking with Ramin Setoodeh, the author of the 2019 book The Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story Of The View, via Vulture.
An excerpt claimed that Walters spend much of her final year on the show despairing about her impending retirement, while McCarthy described her fury.
Inspired: Meghan McCain, who joined the show after Walters had retired, praised her as a ‘trail blazer’
In her debt: Jenny McCarthy thanked Walters for her ‘love, guidance, support, nurturing and for making a seat for me at “the table””
‘You know the movie Mommie Dearest?” Jenny asked, referencing the 1981 camp classic which stars Faye Dunaway as an over-the-top Joan Crawford. ‘I remember as a child watching that movie and going, “Holy cow!”‘ she said, before adding, ‘I’ve never seen a woman yell like that before until I worked with Barbara Walters.’
She recounted an earlier 2007 appearance on the show to talk about her book about her son’s autism diagnosis. Before the show began, Walters called her back to her dressing room and berated her for writing that she had ‘cured’ her son’s autism, though McCarthy claimed to have never used that word.
She vowed, ‘I’m never going on the f***ing View again,’ but a 2012 appearance for a second book was completely different, with Walters greeting her warmly and clearly engaging with what she wrote.
But once she was a co-host on the series, McCarthy claimed that Walters began to scrutinize her clothing and would sometimes order her to change if she thought an outfit was too revealing, or in at least one case, when she allegedly wore a summery dress during the winter.
Rosie O’Donnell shared her praise for the late Walters in a TikTok video posted on Friday evening.
She said she was ‘very sad’ to hear of Walters’ death, before saying, ‘Who wouldn’t take that?’ in response to her long life.
Soured: But she described a confrontation during a 2007 guest appearance, and she later said Watlers constantly scrutinized her outfits once she was a co-host; seen with (L–R) Whoopi Goldberg, Sherri Shepherd, McCarthy and Hasselbeck
Old pals: Rosie O’Donnell praised Walters’ long career and noted how they went to a ‘good many Broadway shows,’ though Walters would slap her hand away when she tried to help her backstage
‘Spoke to every prominent world leader in memory. Spoke to everyone who was anyone, and I was lucky enough to be in her orbit for a good many years,’ O’Donnell continued.
She added that they saw a ‘good many Broadway shows,’ and she recounted how she would try to help Walters on the steps when they would visit backstage, but the veteran journalist would always swipe her hand away.
‘She knew what she was doing, I can tell you that,’ O’Donnell added.
But like several of her costars, O’Donnell — who was on the show from 2006–2007 and 2014–2015 — reportedly had tense times with Walters on the set of The View.
After a 2006 episode, in which she impersonated Donald Trump and criticized him for allegedly using a Miss U.S.A. pageant winner’s drug use as publicity for himself, Walters tried to smooth things over with a reportedly furious Trump, who was apparently angered over O’Donnell’s claims that he had gone bankrupt, as it was only multiple of his businesses that had gone bankrupt, not himself personally.
Falling out: But O’Donnell was furious at Walters when she thought the veteran journalist failed to defend her from Donald Trump after a 2006 segment she led that was critical of him
Left to hang: O’Donnell reportedly told Walters she thought she hadn’t done enough to defend her from Trump’s fury and constant attacks
Trump subsequently claimed that Walters told him she regretted hiring O’Donnell in a chat to try to mollify him.
O’Donnell reportedly came to believe that Walters hadn’t done enough to protect her, according to a Ladies Who Punch excerpt published in Vanity Fair in 2019.
When O’Donnell returned to the show from a short vacation, she exploded at Walters backstage before the broadcast.
‘I definitely yelled,’ O’Donnell recalled. ‘I said how disappointed I was and how shocked and hurt I was that she wouldn’t stand up for me. I felt very betrayed about her going behind my back and speaking to Donald Trump in Trumpian language. I said something about her daughter, which I should not have said. But I did.’
Walters passed away on Friday at her home in New York. She is survived by her daughter Jacqueline Dena Guber.
Source: | Dailymail.co.uk