Barbara Walters is keeping her promise and actually retiring.
She’ll announce today that she will step aside in May 2014.
On Monday’s The View, Walters will make the long-rumored exit official.
“I am very happy with my decision and look forward to a wonderful and special year ahead both on The View and with ABC News,” she told the network.
“I created The View and am delighted it will last beyond my leaving it.”
“I do not want to appear on another program or climb another mountain.”
“Instead, I want instead to sit on a sunny field and admire all of the very gifted women – and OK, some men too – who will be taking my place.”
ABC News President Ben Sherwood says in a statement:
“There’s only one Barbara Walters, and we look forward to making her final year on TV as remarkable, path-breaking and news-making as Barbara herself.”
“Barbara will always have a home at ABC News and we look forward to a year befitting her brilliant career, filled with exclusive interviews, great adventures and indelible memories.”
After word got out that Walters was planning to retire in May of 2014, rumors began swirling that she would break the news on The View in April.
That was half right. She said on the show last month:
“Here I am, and I have no announcement to make. But I do want to say this: If and when I might have an announcement to make, I will do it in this program, I promise.”
The 83-year-old has spent 50 years in the business, after first starting her career in magazine journalism, and then going to work for NBC’s Today in 1961.
Congratulations on a great career Barbara!