Barbara Walters' Relationship With Other Hosts Of The View Explained

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Throughout her decades-long broadcasting career, Barbara Walters symbolized two things. To journalism enthusiasts such as media mogul Oprah Winfrey, Walters was a trendsetter, without whom many careers wouldn't have begun. "I did my very first television audition with her in mind the whole time," Winfrey shared via Instagram, upon the announcement of Walters' passing. To her audience, she'd handle controversial topics other hosts would tiptoe around — such as the Kardashians possessing no known talent — by maintaining a poised demeanor that made light of the moment. 

Walters grew up in the entertainment industry. Her father, Lou Walters, was a booking agent and a nightclub producer. Having a star-studded childhood taught Walters to humanize public figures. "I learned from seeing celebrities that they could bleed, that they had a dark side, That they had children they didn't see...or divorces or lack of relationship," she said on "20/20." Her upbringing gave her a different perspective, which allowed Walters to interview who's who, and establish enough longevity to birth her own brainchild: "The View."

In a conversation with the Emmys' Archive of American Television, Walters revealed that she simply wanted to bring women together, each with their own unique personality and background, "What mattered is these four wonderful women and their relationship and their chemistry," she said. 24 co-hosts later, including Walters herself, here's the relationship she shared with select "The View" co-hosts.

Whoopi Goldberg and Barbara Walters first crossed paths when the former appeared on "The Barbara Walters Special" in 1991. As Goldberg shared with her "The View" co-hosts following Walters' death, she specifically remembered talking about being a parent with the venerated host. "She asked me a question about, you know, what was it like to be a mother doing it and I said I always feel bad because, you know, an opportunity came to me," said Goldberg. "And if I'd been a great mother, I would have said, 'Okay opportunity, just stay there and let me raise my kid and I'll come back and find you.'" 

Though they connected on the struggles that come with being a parent while pursuing a career in show business, Goldberg and Walters wouldn't see eye to eye. For example, Goldberg strongly opposed a potential soda ban suggested by former New York City governor Michael Bloomberg, while Walters was for the idea.

Goldberg had profound respect for Walters, one which showed itself during Walters' 2014 retirement. "I think it might be very difficult to make that decision when you're still feeling viable and everything, to move away from it," Goldberg opined on an episode of "The Wendy Williams Show." The moment, she said, was a bittersweet affair.

America was introduced to Lisa Ling as a "The View" panelist when she was only 26 years old. Ling had a three-year run that ended in 2002. As she shared on the show's 25th anniversary special "Behind the Table," Barbara Walters offered her an invaluable nugget of wisdom: "Whatever you do, don't neglect your personal life."

There's no question Walters worked hard to get where she got, but as she shared in the 2014 ABC News special "Barbara Walters: Her Story," she later came to regret making work such a priority. "I know what she sacrificed. I know how hard it was to have a personal life and also fight those battles in a misogynistic, a grossly misogynistic culture," Ling remarked.

During a special episode celebrating Walters' legacy on "The View," Lisa Ling went on to detail an early lunch with Walters that eventually led her to work on her relationship with her family. "We were sitting there, and she's looking straight at me and starting to ask me about intimate details of my personal life," Ling said. "And I'm telling you, when she started asking me about my mum, I was just...wailing."

Debbie Matenopoulos was one of the show's pioneering co-hosts with her own segment dubbed "Dare Debbie." Matenopoulos stepped into the scene at the age of 22. And while she didn't make it past the show's second season, that's not to say she didn't connect with the lead host. In a "Behind the Table" chat, Joy Behar remembered how Barbara Walters gravitated toward Matenopoulos. "One of the reasons she liked you was because you imitated your Greek mother. She was obsessed with that," said Behar.

Matenopoulos noted that the show's writers had noticed a pattern in how she interacted with Walters. "She wanted me to be this 22-year-old, like, with my finger on the pulse of pop culture. She would hit me under the table and I would stop talking in the middle of a sentence on live television!" Matenopoulos' freezing didn't necessarily go over well with audiences. Although she was offended at first, she was grateful for the platform she'd been given. "I was, like, honored because two months earlier no one even knew my name," she said.

After the news of Walters' passing broke, Matenopoulos told Access Hollywood, "A lot of people saw what Barbara is and what she's accomplished and how she's paved the way ... but beyond that, she was really funny, and she was really warm, and she was really generous with her time and her wisdom."

In 2006, Elisabeth Hasselbeck tried to quit "The View" during a commercial break, per Variety. During a passionate on-screen exchange in which Hasselbeck was against a proposed over-the-counter use of the morning-after pill, Barbara Walters tried to take control of the situation. "Elisabeth, come down dear," the TV veteran pleaded. "I think the most important thing, which is what we see today, is we've got to be able to have these discussions and listen to other people's opinions."

Hasselbeck seemed to be in agreement, but the heat went up a notch higher. In an exclusive audio obtained by Variety, Hasselbeck says," What the f**k! I don't even swear. She [Walters] has me swearing. This woman is driving me nuts...I can't go back. I can't do the show like this." 

It took the effort of "The View" executive producer Bill Geddie to bring her on board, and she stayed until 2013. In her reflection on her 10-year run on "The View," Hasselbeck said of Walters, "She and I had a layered relationship. She was my TV mom, my mentor like she is to all of you."

When Michelle Collins got on "The View" in 2015, she was over the moon. In an on-set interview with E! News, Collins gushed over her new job. "Of course I'm excited," she delightedly told the channel. "This is like... dream come true. It's Amazing!" Collins was a longtime fan of "The View," and she and would-be co-host Joy Behar had crossed paths before on other projects. "It would be a gift to fill half her shoe, she's the best," Collins said of Behar. 

Though she was cut from the series only the next year, Collins has a number of memories from her time on "The View" — many of which she's shared on her SiriusXM radio show, her podcast, and social media. One memory that understandably stuck with her? Her first meal with Barbara Walters. "One of the first rites of passage of becoming a host on @TheView was to have lunch with Barbara Walters," Collins tweeted in the wake of the series creator's death. "Few times in my life have I been that nervous." In that same post, she continued, "She was an absolute trailblazer, class, elegance, smarts that are increasingly hard to come by. I'll always be grateful." The duo seemed to get along well, given a backstage picture Collins posted on Twitter with a caption that partially read: "Our energies summed up quite nicely here."