Barbara Walters Was Actually Forced to Quit ‘The View,’ Former Co-Host Lisa Ling Says

When Barbara Walters retired from The View in 2014, she was celebrated and it felt like she was stepping away voluntarily. However, Lisa Ling claimed that was not the case. In a recent interview, Ling said Walters told her ABC News executives were “making” the television legend retire.

Walters’ final episode of The View saw many former co-hosts return to say goodbye. Ling, who was on the show from 1999 to 2002, was one of them. When the cameras were not rolling, Ling asked Walters if she would be “lounging in a hammock in Tahiti” during her retirement. “And she just leaned over and whispered, ‘They’re making me quit,’” Ling told The Cut in an interview published on March 13. Ling said that was the first time she publicly discussed that moment.

Ling, 49, is now the host of This Is Life with Lisa Ling on CNN. She was among the first View co-hosts, joining after Debbie Matenopoulos left following the first two seasons. Ling recalled asking Walters about her interviews with Fidel Castro and Menachem Begin. “And she would just look me directly in the eye and say, ‘Darling, just don’t neglect your personal life,’” Ling told The Cut.

Walters retired from The View in 2014 after over 50 years on television. She made her final on-air appearance in 2015 and was last seen publicly in 2016. Walters remained an executive producer on The View until her death on Dec. 30, 2022, at 93. “Barbara Walters passed away peacefully in her home surrounded by loved ones. She lived her life with no regrets,” Walters’ representative, Cindi Berger, said. “She was a trailblazer not only for female journalists but for all women.”

Ling was among the former View co-hosts who returned to the show to pay tribute to Walters during the first episode of 2023. Ling said it was “surreal” to sit next to Walters on the show as a young journalist and considered her a mother figure. “I believe she thought of us as her kids, her daughters,” Ling said, notes The Hollywood Reporter.

Ling has looked back on her years of The View with fond memories. She returned as a guest co-host last year while producers were searching for a replacement for Meghan McCain. “I loved doing The View, but I was 26 years old when I was doing it,” Ling told Larry King in 2013, via Page Six. “And I still had this desire to be in the field, and I was kind of constrained to be in a studio five days a week.”