The Uncomfortable Question Barbara Walters Once Asked Dolly Parton
Journalist Barbara Walters died on December 30, 2022, leaving behind a decades-long career that was impressive and fearsome. Famous for her no-nonsense line of questioning, Walters didn't hesitate to tackle tough questions or sit down with intimidating guests. But this style of interviewing left a few people feeling raw after a sit-down with Walters. She arguably pushed things way too far with Ricky Martin, and she even admitted later that she regretted how she handled questions around his sexuality. During the 2000 interview, Walters asked Martin if he was gay and his evasiveness led people to assume that he was long before he was ready to share his truth. "When she dropped the question, I felt violated because I was just not ready to come out. I was very afraid." Martin told People years later. "There's a little PTSD with that."
Brooke Shields also spoke about a challenging interview she had with Walters back when the model was only 15. When Shields dished about it on "The Drew Barrymore Show," Barrymore herself admitted that she went through something similar with Walters. The questions were too tough and probing for the guests' comfort. The same can be said of an interview between the iconic personality and country superstar Dolly Parton from 1977. It certainly didn't age well!
Dolly Parton shut down Barbara Walters' uncomfortable body questions
Dolly Parton sat down with Barbara Walters in 1977 and got the full experience. In a particularly trying part of the interview, Walters narrows in on Parton's appearance, first probing with questions about Parton's body. Parton joked and asked if Walter's was referring to her "full figure." Walters pushed it further. "My assistant asked me something, and I'm going to blame it on her because I wouldn't have had the nerve otherwise," Walters began. "Is it all you?" she asked Parton.
The "Jolene" singer graciously laughed and said she gets asked that a lot. "I always say that if I hadn't have had it on my own," Parton said, referring to her body, "I'm just the kind of person that would have had me some made."
What was arguably the worst point of the interview was when Walters pointed at Parton and said, "You don't have to look like this." She went on, "You're very beautiful. You don't have to wear the blonde wigs. You don't have to wear the extreme clothes." Even this Parton handled with grace. "No, it's certainly a choice," Parton said calmly. "I don't like to be like everybody else. I've often made the statement that I would never stoop so low as to be fashionable. That's the easiest thing in the world to do."
A communications professor studied the Dolly Parton interview
The iconic 1977 interview with Barbara Walters and Dolly Parton has become such a legendary spectacle that communications coach Alexander Lyon used it to teach his subscribers how to handle difficult conversations. His YouTube tutorial, based on Parton's responses, has attracted more than one million views. In regards to Walters' questions about Parton's body and appearance, Lyon said that Parton "handles this personal and potentially rude comment with charm and class." Ten points for Parton! Lyon said Walters seems to want to provoke Parton in the interview, but our gal is too shrewd and too polite to fall for it.
Parton has always been aware of her flamboyant, playful taste. Decades later, when she sat down with Vogue in 2020 and went over her most famous looks, Parton still poked fun at her love of going over the top. "I know that I've always liked to wear a lot of makeup," Parton said. "More than probably I should wear, but I think more is more and whoever made up that 'less is more' was full of it." This is the winning attitude that has made Parton so beloved.