Barbara Walters announces retirement plan

Barbara Walters revealed that she will retire next year.

10:10 15 May 2013

Veteran ABC News anchor Barbara Walters has announced her plan to retire from TV journalism next summer. She made the announcement on Monday’s edition of The View, the show that she created in 1997.

 

Barbara, who was the first woman to anchor a daily network television show in 1976, had to fight back tears when she was making the announcement.

 

She said: “I have been on television continuously for almost 50 years- I was very young when I started- but in the summer of 2014 I plan to retire from appearing on television at all.

 

“I'm perfectly healthy. This is my decision. I've been thinking about it for a long time.”

 

She added: “It has been an absolutely joyful, rewarding, challenging, fascinating, and occasionally bumpy ride. And I wouldn't change a thing.”

 

The 83-year-old anchorwoman also shared her plan on how to spend her retirement.

 

She said: “I do not want to appear on another program or climb another mountain. I want instead to sit on a sunny field and admire the very gifted women - and, OK, some men, too - who will be taking my place.”