Latest news with #CynthiaMcFadden
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Barbara Walters' biggest regret over motherhood revealed after Oprah admitted star put her off having kids
Barbara Walters ' lingering regrets over her strained relationship with her daughter has been revealed in a heartbreaking new documentary. The broadcast icon, who died in 2022 at the age of 93, is the focus of the new Hulu film, Barbara Walters Tell Me Everything - which explores the star's rise to fame as she balanced motherhood and her career. Walters was 'regretful about her family life' and 'strained relationship' with her adopted daughter Jackie, longtime friend and colleague Cynthia McFadden, 69, told People ahead of the film's release. 'It was something she felt like she couldn't fix. So that was really tugging at her,' the former NBC News correspondent said. Walters, who began her network career as a Today show correspondent, made history as the first woman to anchor a nightly news broadcast in 1976 on ABC Evening News, sharing the desk with Harry Reasoner. In 1979, she began co-anchoring the weekly news magazine 20/20, developing a knack for interviewing celebrities, which resulted in her occasional specials. What many fans didn't know was that Walters had adopted her daughter, Jackie, in 1968 with her second husband, Lee Gruber. The couple divorced in 1976. Archival footage in the documentary shows Walters speaking about the excitement of being a mother. 'My world came together. I mean, I was already on the Today Show. And I'd had three miscarriages, and now I had everything.' But her success at work meant time away from her family. 'Barbara was always flying somewhere, interviewing someone,' McFadden told the outlet. 'And it's not like she could have brought her young daughter along for the ride.' Another clip reveals the challenges Walters faced. 'Today, people are more accepting. You can bring your kid to the office. In those days, if I had brought Jackie into the studio, it would be as if I had bought a dog who was not housebroken," she could be heard saying in the film. Mother and daughter were very different from each other. Walters seemed to be disappointed Jackie didn't share her professional drive, according to her friend, while Jackie had her own struggles, including drug use. '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,' McFadden asserted. Mother and daughter struggled with their relationship, according to Walters' longtime friend and colleague Cynthia McFadden; Pictured in Los Angeles in January 1990 'I think it's important to say that Jackie shouldn't be held accountable for any of this, and Barbara wouldn't have wanted her to be. I think this was really on the adult side of the equation here. Jackie is a delightful person,' she said. McFadden, who is adopted herself, produced a segment on adoption and asked Jackie which was more difficult, 'being adopted or being Barbara Walters's daughter?' 'Being Barbara Walters's daughter.,' was her immediate reply. The film's director, Jackie Jesko, told People she doesn't want Walters' struggles at home to overshadow her successes. Barbara Walters Tell Me Everything debuts on Hulu June 23. Oprah Winfrey recalled how the media mogul had actually encouraged her to have kids and stated, 'I remember her telling me once that there's nothing more fulfilling than having children, and "You should really think about it." 'And I was like, "Okay, but I'm looking at you, so, no,"' the former talk show host continued. Oprah also described Barbara's relationship with her daughter as both 'complex' and 'charged' - adding that it was 'one of the reasons why I never had children.'
Fox News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Barbara Walters' tough interviews 'haven't aged well,' former colleague claims
Former NBC and ABC correspondent Cynthia McFadden claimed on Wednesday that some of her friend Barbara Walters' interviews "haven't aged well" in the years following her death. To preview the upcoming documentary "Barbara Walters Tell Me Everything," People Magazine spoke with McFadden about the trailblazing newswoman's life. Over the course of her career, Walters was a hard-hitting interviewer with high-profile subjects ranging from heads of state to the Kardashians. Though these interviews gave Walters an almost celebrity status herself, McFadden wondered if her questions would still fly today. "Some of her interviews haven't aged well," McFadden told People Magazine with a laugh. Among some of Walters' more pointed remarks included telling the Kardashians in 2011, "You don't act, you don't sing, you don't dance, you don't have any — forgive me — talent." In her first TV special in 1976, Walters also asked legendary singer Barbra Streisand, "Why didn't you have your nose fixed?" "No one got out of a Barbara interview unscathed," McFadden remarked. Still, McFadden believed Walters took her job "very seriously," particularly after becoming ABC's first female nightly news co-anchor alongside Harry Reasoner. McFadden added that Walters endured harsh sexism behind the scenes. "Harry was downright rude to her," McFadden said. "I would walk into that studio, and Harry would be sitting with the stagehands, and they'd all crack jokes and ignore me. No one would talk to me. There was not a woman on the staff." Walters was a longtime ABC News anchor who also hosted the primetime show "20/20" and created the women's talk show "The View" in 1997. She passed away in 2022 at age 93.
