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It looks like the tables have turned on Barbara Walters.
The Hulu documentary Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything offers surprising insights into the life of the late broadcasting icon, known for her probing interviews with celebrities. A significant portion of the documentary delves into Walters’ well-documented rivalry with fellow journalist Diane Sawyer, as recounted by former colleagues and friends.
Walters, a key figure on ABC’s 20/20 and 60 Minutes, reportedly felt “betrayed” when the network brought on Sawyer to create a new newsmagazine intended to be “more lively” and “better” than 20/20, according to former ABC News executive producer Victor Neufeld. Connie Chung mentioned in the documentary that both Sawyer and Walters were embroiled in a fierce competition to secure the same stories, leading to a notable lack of communication between their respective teams at ABC.
Cynthia McFadden shared in the documentary that Walters even tried to undermine an eagerly awaited interview that Sawyer had secured with Katharine Hepburn.
“Diane had booked, fair and square, Katharine Hepburn, and Barbara, who knew Katharine Hepburn, put a lot of pressure on Kate to unbook and go with her,” McFadden recounted in the documentary. “You know, Kate said, ‘No, no. I promised Diane, and I will do it with her.’ And she did.”
The documentary features footage of Walters admitting she and Sawyer were in competition with each other for stories. “I donât think Diane Sawyer and I had a feud; I think people know that we were after the same gets,” she says in the film.
McFadden, who was a longtime friend of Walters’, said they had “plenty” of conversations regarding her feelings about Sawyer.
“I never had a conversation with Diane Sawyer about her feelings about Barbara. But, I had plenty with Barbara about her feelings about Diane, because she was certainly dogged by Dianeâs very existence,” McFadden said. “She often said Diane was the perfect woman. She used the words, ‘a blonde goddess,’ this ideal woman, and that she, Barbara, couldn’t compete with that. She could work harder, she could know more people, but she couldnât compete with that, the blonde goddess.â
She continued, “She couldn’t tolerate having Diane Sawyer rise in what she saw as a direct challenge to what she had accomplished. … I think it tore into all those parts of herself where she felt, as a child, she was an outsider. In some bizarre way, Diane made her feel all of those insecurities all over again.”
Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything is streaming now on Hulu.