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| Barbara Walters |
Renowned TV journalist
Barbara Walters has spilled the dish to
Oprah Winfrey that she engaged in an illicit affair with a married senator during the 1970’s. Walters revealed in a taped segment of
The Oprah Winfrey Show, slated to air May 6, that she saw Senator
Edward Brooke, a moderate Republican from Massachusetts who took office in 1967, behind closed doors for several years.
Brooke was the first African-American to be popularly elected to the Senate. And Walters told Winfrey that the couple hid their affair from the American public and his wife for fear it would ruin their respective burgeoning careers.
At the time of the affair, Walters, twice-divorced, was climbing the ranks of TV journalism as a co-host of NBC’s
Today show, followed by her switch to ABC News, where she enjoyed wild success and stature.
Brooke, who later divorced his wife, and has since remarried, could not be reached for comment regarding Walters’ allegations.
Speaking to Oprah about her new memoir,
Audition, which delves into her television career and her personal life, Walters fondly recalled her years with Brooke, calling him “exciting” and “brilliant”.
Walters’ affair with Brooke, which they managed to keep under wraps for 30 years, ended before his bid for a third term in 1978. But Walters told Winfrey that a friend at the time, concerned for her reputation and career, urged Walters to end it.
"He said, 'This is going to come out. This is going to ruin your career,'" and reminding Walters that Brooke was up for re-election a year later, the friend said, "'This is going to ruin him. You've got to break this off.'"
Walters, who was admittedly smitten with Brooke, couldn’t definitively answer Winfrey when the talk show host asked if she was in love with the Senator.
"I was certainly—I don't know—I was certainly infatuated," Walters said. "Infatuated."
"I was certainly involved," Walters says. "He was exciting. He was brilliant. It was exciting times in Washington."
