Sherri Shepherd and Pleasure Behar are spilling the tea about Barbara Walters’ alleged hookup with comic Richard Pryor.
Shepherd, 56, and Behar, 81, reminisced about their time working with Walters — who died at age 93 in December 2022 — through the Wednesday, October 11, episode of Shepherd’s daytime discuss present, Sherri.
“I got here in and I informed you, ‘[Late comedian] Paul Mooney mentioned he caught Barbara with Richard Pryor, he walked in on them.’ And I mentioned, ‘Don’t inform no one,’” Shepherd recalled.
Though Shepherd — who labored with Behar on The View, which Walters created, from 2007 to 2013 — wished to maintain the knowledge a secret, her costar didn’t waste time asking Walters concerning the rumor.
“The subsequent day, Barbara walks in and also you go, ‘So, you [schtupping] Richard Pryor, huh?’” Shepherd recounted. “[Barbara] rotated … and he or she goes, ‘Who informed you that?’ And I’m sitting there like, ‘I achieved simply obtained this job.’”
Neither Shepherd nor Behar mentioned whether or not Walters confirmed or denied the story about herself and Pryor, who died at age 65 in December 2005. Nonetheless, Behar did declare that Pryor was the published journalist’s sort.
Richard Pryor being interviewed by Barbara Walters, 1980. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Pictures
“Barbara favored a brother. She was going out with a Black senator,” Behar mentioned, referring to Edward Brooke. (In her 2008 autobiography, Audition, Walters recalled having an affair with Brooke, who died at age 95 in 2015, within the Seventies.)
Shepherd echoed the emotions, saying, “[Former Secretary of State] Colin Powell was her crush.”
Along with discussing Walters’ romantic preferences, Shepherd admitted to being intimidated by the tv icon.
“You favored it that I used to be terrified of Barbara Walters. You used to snort,” Shepherd informed Behar. When Behar requested the actress what she discovered scary about Walters, Shepherd replied: “I don’t know. She was simply so formidable.”
After Walters’ demise, Behar sang her former costar’s praises throughout a December 2022 interview with Good Morning America.
“She’s very a lot the function mannequin for lots of people in showbiz and the information world for positive,” she mentioned. “She had a piece ethic you couldn’t deny. She was all the time ready and he or she was all the time engaged on her materials. She by no means went on the market and didn’t know what she was doing.”
Revisiting Barbara Walters’ Most Well-known Interviews By the Years
Barbara Walters was a broadcasting pioneer, interviewing dozens of well-known faces from former President Richard Nixon to pop star Taylor Swift. “I do my homework, so I’ve a sure sense of authority,” the previous View cohost — who died on December 30, 2022, on the age of 93 — solely informed Us Weekly in Could 2014 of getting ready […]
Behar additionally joked that Walters landed her many high-profile interviews as a consequence of her “unimaginable bladder” management.
“[She] by no means went to the lavatory,” the comic defined. “And that’s why she may all the time soar on these interviews earlier than anyone else did.”
Behar lovingly poked enjoyable at Walters’ legacy once more earlier this month when Spice Women singer Geri Halliwell introduced up Walters’ signature smile throughout an look on The View. Noting that an individual’s mouth must be “barely open” to nail the Walters smile, Behar quipped, “Effectively, these are from her porn days.”
After the comment elected a shocked response from the present’s viewers, Behar clarified, “I’m kidding. They realize it’s a joke.”