BARBARA WALTERS, 91, DEMENTIA HEARTBREAK
Beloved TV news icon is tragic prisoner of mind-robbing illness
ICONIC TV newsgal Barbara Walters was sharp as a tack when she grilled the world’s biggest leaders, but ravaging dementia has now tragically turned the 91-yearold into a prisoner in her own bed, say sources.
“Her friends suspect her health plunged three years ago when she stopped posting on social media,” spills an insider.
“Now everyone is fearing the worst — that the end is near.”
Barbara retired from ABC’s The View in 2014 and now can’t recall her glory years as a groundbreaking TV journalist, who questioned political kingpins like Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Britain’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, spies dish.
“She can’t seem to remember
the great stories she broke or the people she worked with, not even Whoopi Goldberg from her days on The View,” says the insider.
“Whoopi and a few other View friends used to call her from time to time just to check up on her and she used to receive visitors, too.”
But COVID lockdown has stopped visitors from coming and even if they did, “Barbara doesn’t say much and doesn’t remember them anymore,” says the insider.
“She is mostly confined to her bed, where she naps most of the time.
“She has caretakers who stay with her in shifts caring for her, sometimes staying a month at a time.”
While Barbara’s rep insists the legend recognizes her during their twice-a-month Zoom chats, the insider claims the brain disease has savaged her memory so “Walters doesn’t know” one person from the other.
“She stares at them. She has to be told things over and over because her memory is gone,” the insider says.
Sadly, Barbara at first remained hardy in her golden years, “but she’s a virtual skeleton now and so fragile. She eats a little then goes back to napping.”
Besides world leaders, Barbara interviewed scores of celebs during her career and was famous for her probing questions.
In a 1981 chat with screen icon Katharine Hepburn, she asked the star what kind of tree she would be. Hepburn replied, “An oak.” Now, she’s so far out of it, she wasn’t aware when old pal Regis Phil bin passed away in July.
“She was too far gone to know Regis had died, let alone know who he was,” notes the insider.