Barbara Walters reveals past affair with US senator

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — After three decades of keeping mum, Barbara Walters is disclosing a past affair with married U.S. Senator Edward Brooke, whom she remembers as "exciting" and "brilliant."

Appearing on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" scheduled to air Tuesday, Walters shares details of her relationship with Brooke that lasted several years in the 1970s, according to a transcript of the show provided to The Associated Press.

A moderate Republican from Massachusetts who took office in 1967, Brooke was the first African-American to be popularly elected to the Senate. Both he and Walters knew that public knowledge of their affair could have ruined his career as well as hers, Walters says.

At the time, the twice-divorced Walters was a rising star in TV news and co-host of NBC's "Today" show, but would soon jump to ABC News, where she has enjoyed unrivaled success. Her affair with Brooke, which never before came to light, had ended before he lost his bid for a third term in 1978.

Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hD3wc2Wz4t3sdmX5Nr7_UI-6iw1QD90D1H081

[shain from kane]

1. She's babbling about Brooke.

[Turbineguy]

2. Very

droll!

[saigon68]

37. She is a Two (2) Bagger

[izquierdista]

20. Don't you mean Bwooke?

I weawwy want to wisten to that interview! :rofl:

[MADem]

3. BaBa had flings with EVERYONE! Brooke, though a Republican, was certainly a better pick

than Alan Greenspan! At least he was good looking, and, as seen on TV eons ago at the popular STUDIO 54 disco, could "do the hustle!"

She knocked about with John Warner for a time, too. Quite a Mata Hari, our Babs!

And she was VERY GOOD to her sister. It's well known here in MA, where she was raised, how good she was to her.

[wryter2000]

7. Alan Greenspan?

Thanks, now I have to shove something into my visual cortex to get rid of that image. :evilgrin:

[MADem]

14. Yes, Alan Greenspan. She was with him before Andrea Mitchell.

She also dated -- just dated, though --Roy Cohn, who was way in the closet and died of AIDS. He supposedly proposed to her before she married one of her three husbands. He helped her adopt her daughter.

[Virginia Dare]

32. She pretty much admits she slept her way to the top..

one of the few ways for women to make it in that business back then.

[MADem]

58. No, that's not accurate. She had affairs with people, but not her bosses.

That's a pretty interesting comment, there. What network execs did she bang, pray tell?

She was a product of the "Swinging Sixties." That's probably more accurate than suggesting that she "slept her way to the top."

:eyes:

[Virginia Dare]

70. Sleeping with powerful men....

you don't think she ever benefited from pillow talk? She didn't necessarily need to sleep with network execs to make it as an international journalist. In her previous biography, she pretty much admitted as much.

[MADem]

71. You don't know much about her career. She was taking shit in a big way

from Harry Reasoner during that era-hardly "benefitting." She only stuck there because she knew that she was a groundbreaker.

I think the characterization that she's some sort of pillow-talk putana is pretty outrageous. She didn't sleep with Yassir Arafat or Muhamar Qaddafi, or the Shah of Iran, or Fidel Castro, did she?

She's a good interviewer who had a robust sex life. If a male, she'd be admired. As a female, she's scorned--even by females.

Curious that.

[Virginia Dare]

75. No, I don't scorn her..

but I'm not a big fan either. I'm not dissing her for her sex life, but the fact is there's lots of pillow talk in Washington. She probably benefitted from it as much as anybody. She slept with both Alan Greenspan and John Warner, to name two.

[MADem]

76. John Warner is much more recent. Who knows how much screwing they were doing?

Neither are spring chickens anymore. He was her escort to the inauguration of the Monkey.

People forget that she was a product of the Swinging Sixties, free love, and all that. It's a different paradigm.

[Lorien]

41. Yep, she admitted as much on "the view"

actually, all of the View cohosts admitted to having affairs except "the twit". But she's a die hard republican, so just give her time...

[MADem]

59. Really? Which network presidents/execs did she say, on the View, that she slept with? NT

[HughBeaumont]

48. I . . . . yeah.

Alan Greenspan, Sex Symbol.



That's like HughBeaumont, Right wing Republican. NO.

[MADem]

60. Well, he has a very bad back--he soaks in the tub every morning.

Maybe it got that way with him getting his swerve on....

And perhaps he has qualities that aren't, er, immediately apparent!

[Tesha]

72. Doesn't he just look irrationally exuberant in that picture??? (NT)

[HughBeaumont]

73. Like he just . . . got some.

Yeeeeeeeeesh . . . :puke: :scared: :puke: :scared: :puke: :scared: :puke: :scared:

[Canuckistanian]

4. "first African-American to be popularly elected"?

How else can you be elected?

[wryter2000]

9. The Bush way

Steal it.

[Freddie Stubbs]

10. Prior to the ratification of the 17th Amendment in 1917,

Senators were elected by their states' legislatures.

http://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_Am17.html

[Canuckistanian]

16. Ah thanks.

But I doubt that any black Senator was elected by state legislature prior to 1917.

[Freddie Stubbs]

22. There were two prior to 1917

Hiram Rhodes Revels and Blanche Bruce both served in the Senate.

http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=R000166

http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B000968

[Canuckistanian]

24. Whoa. I stand corrected.

Thanks, Freddie Stubbs...

[LisaM]

11. Someone could have been appointed, n/t

[Vanje]

13. By the Supreme Court, of course. nt

[xxqqqzme]

21. I think they were speaking of the freed slaves

elected during Reconstruction. They were not 'popularly' elected.

[MADem]

61. Back in the dark ages, the governors or the state legislatures could appoint Senators. NT

[suston96]

5. That was pretty well known to those of us who lived there back then.....

I believe Brooke lost to Paul Tsongas mainly because of a bitter divorce Brooke was going through.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Brooke

[MADem]

69. Yep--it was very contentious. The Brookes hadn't been a couple for some time.

Of course, back then, it was the kiss of death to be divorced, at least in MA.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

6. I almost choked when I saw her with Da Span.

Da Span is a triple-bagger and a disciple of Ayn Rand.

[Jane Austin]

26. What's a triple bagger?

Thanks.

[eppur_se_muova]

29. Someone you'd go out with only if he wore a bag over his head ...

and, you know, just in case the first bag broke ...

[Jane Austin]

31. Ah, thanks. eom

[Clear Blue Sky]

8. Wow! BaBa WaWa got around in her day. Good for her...

[wryter2000]

12. Evidently, speech impediments are a turn on for men. n/t

n/t

[Dangerously Amused]

15. Wow, that was cold.

[shain from kane]

17. Maybe she wawaed them in the sack.

[AndyA]

18. What a tramp. n/m

[Tab]

19. Ah, who cares?

Sheesh.

[MessiahRp]

23. She always ends up with Republican men it seems....

:puke:

Rp

[Benhurst]

25. Thanks, Barbara, for sharing.

:puke:

[Jamastiene]

55. My sentiments exactly. n/t

[pattmarty]

27. Before she was just stupid, now she's senile too???

[barnel]

28. once somewhat classy seeming, she's been tabloid for a long time -nt

[eppur_se_muova]

30. A "journalist" in bed with a politician? Say it ain't so! nt

[defendandprotect]

33. I had a higher opinion of Sen. Brooke . . .

[fascisthunter]

34. Thanks for the Distraction

[Tangerine LaBamba]

35. My, my, my

The things the old tramp will do to sell a few books ...........

[Radio_Lady]

36. WHO are you calling an OLD TRAMP?

Cordially,

Radio Lady in Oregon

[Tangerine LaBamba]

39. WHAT??????

Barbara slept with THEM, too???????

[wellst0nev0ter]

38. So She A Tramp Because She (GASP!) Sleeps With Men

Christ, the sexism here can be overpowering at times :eyes:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

40. What is wrong with you?

What sexism?

She's a tramp because she's making it public to sell books. That's cheap and degrading, in my opinion. I'd say the same thing about any man who published his autobiography - like Wilt Chamberlain - and made a big deal about who he slept with.

Sexism, my ass.

[MADem]

63. You do know she called Ed Brooke first, don't you? Before she published?

Does that make you think she's now NOT a TRAMP?

:eyes:

[BigDaddy44]

49. Married men no less

[PassingFair]

50. Married republican senators...

:eyes:

[MADem]

64. Ed Brooke was more liberal than Linc Chaffee.

There's Republican, and there's New England Republican.

The reason Mitt Romney was such a lousy governor was because he wasn't a NE Republican.

Brooke's marriage was on the rocks, anyway. He's on a new wife now, and living in FL.

[PassingFair]

65. Guess that makes it OK...

:crazy:

How about John Warner and Roy Cohn?

Yes, she is my role model!

[MADem]

67. Warner is a pragmatist. Cohn helped her adopt her daughter, and she

never slept with him.

[MADem]

62. It's only the MEN who can sleep around, but they have to be sleeping with someone, don't they?

And if it's each other, why, that's a GOP NO NO!!

The sexism here is fascinating. Not in a GOOD way, but fascinating, nonetheless--like a maggot on a piece of pie, or something.

And what's amazing is, way too many people, in this Twenty First Century, just DO NOT see it. You call them on it, and they deny it and use the "Only Keeeeeeeeeeeeding!!!!" routine as their defense. Of course, if you turned the same insult to race, why, it would be Third Rail time.

Women are still getting the short end, even here at Not So Egalitarian DU.

[Lorien]

42. Do you also refer to McCain as an "old tramp"?

it seems like being older and sleeping around is only really vile if you are a woman (or a male democrat).

And Walters has admitted to having affairs many times in the past, so this is hardly anything new.

[Endangered Specie]

44. Ive called him an old dirty bastard... that okay for you?

Its not that she got around, its that shes doing it to make a sale.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

46. Of course

For me, "tramp" is a generic term. But, if you're fenced in by sexual stereotypes, then you might see it as a strictly feminine definition.

Barbara didn't do her sleeping around when she was older, so you're leaping to some kind of assumption here that simply doesn't exist. She apparently wrote about her affairs when she was much younger.

I'm just not a fan of people who kiss and tell when their book sales are the point. I wonder if Barbara or John McCain or Wilt Chamberlain also wrote about the waiters and electricians and secretaries and lobbyists and cab drivers and soldiers and cheerleaders and police officers and nuns and social workers and dog trainers and nurses and lawyers and Marines and ice skaters and crossing guards they slept with?

She's only telling about the famous people she's slept with, now that she's trying to sell her book? Yeah, she's a tramp.

[Habibi]

43. Good heavens. Who in his/her right mind would want to

vizualize Baba Wawa in an affair with *anyone*? Agh. I have to go drink now.

[Endangered Specie]

45. Could be worse...

[Tangerine LaBamba]

47. Dear God In Heaven Above All..............

Now I have to go and sharpen the pencils so that they go in all the way when I STAB THEM IN MY EYES!

[drmeow]

53. Oh, Jesus - that was painful

It may qualify as cruel and unusual punishment. Certainly enough to terrify me.

[Jamastiene]

57. Aaaaahhhh!

:puke: Mommy, please make them stop. :scared:

[Jamastiene]

56. Pour one for me too, will ya?

Make it a vodka double.

[MADem]

66. I think she's very pretty, actually. And for her age, she's a knockout.

I remember when she did that PLAYBOY BUNNY program--she went undercover and did a report on the whole "lifestyle"--Jesus, that was forty or more years ago. She had to put on the stupid outfit and serve drinks. Since they don't have PLAYBOY BUNNIES (the waitress version, anyway) anymore, many people might not realize what kind of crap she had to deal with during her career.

Harry Reasoner was an outright bastard to her--fuck him, the jealous old codger. She's the reason that people can turn on their TV, see a woman broadcasting the news, and not say "What's SHE doing there?"

[Habibi]

78. Was that Baba?

I thought it was Gloria Steinem.

[MADem]

79. She did it for NBC news/Today

http://www.nndb.com/people/440/000023371/

Scroll down, and you see it noted: "Undercover assignment."

Steinem, IIRC, did the job too, but WROTE about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Steinem

In 1963 she was employed as a Playboy Bunny at the New York Playboy Club to research an article that exposed how women were treated at the clubs. The article was a sensation, making Steinem an in-demand writer in the process.



There's some great video of Barbara here--you can see her in the "bunny suit" in the first set of clips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwPW0gStCZA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC5jM_IuGl4

[Generator]

51. Baa baa waa waa

banged a black Republican married senator? Oh vey. The things you learn on the DU.

[Radio_Lady]

52. You spelled that wrong. It should have read, "OY VEY."

Cordially,

Radio Lady Ellen

A Kiss and Tell Broadcaster, but No One Cares who I slept with..... and I'm not writing a vanity book, either.

[MADem]

68. Well, they had a romance. It was more than "banging." It lasted quite a while. NT

[Jamastiene]

54. I wish I could un-envision that scenario.

The thought of Barbara Walters shagging just activates my gag reflex like nothing I have ever imagined.

*shudder* Yuck! :puke:

I may need therapy.

[Ronnie]

74. Maybe if some people on this thread had more interesting lives,

they wouldn't be so judgmental.

[MADem]

77. Barbara is a good person.

So was her father, rest his soul.

Anyone who knows her will say that. She doesn't have a mean bone in her body. She's smart, sharp, and loyal. What more could anyone want in a friend?