Barbara Walters is suffering from advanced dementia and is a prisoner in her luxury NYC apartment, Radar Online reports.
Caretakers for the legendary anchorwoman stop her from watching the news because it upsets her too much.
Sources tell Radar the 93-year-old spends most of her days in bed. She doesn’t recognize her caretakers, and she rarely has moments of clarity.
“Barbara is just a shadow of herself,” the source said. “She often doesn’t remember what day it is, or who her famous friends and colleagues are.”
The source said nothing excites Walters like the news.
“When the news comes on, Barbara gets extremely agitated because she’s convinced, she’s supposed to be there reporting the stories! It takes a great deal of time and effort for her caregivers to calm her down. So, they try to keep her away from the TV to avoid upsetting her.”
Walters’ most memorable interviews include Michael Jackson (pictured), Donald Trump, Katherine Hepburn, Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, Monica Lewinsky, and more.
Walters began her career on The Today Show in the early 1960s as a writer and segment producer on women’s issues.
She later hosted Today, 20/20, the ABC Evening News, The View and her Sirius XM satellite show, Here’s Barbara, before retiring in 2014.
In 2021, Walters told her staff to arrange a party for her birthday and invite her close friends Elizabeth Taylor and former ABC co-anchor Hugh Downs, who are both dead.
Walters rarely gets visitors anymore as she is largely forgotten by the news industry she helped shape.
Occasionally, old friends still send Barbara Walters her flowers while she’s still here.
