Barbara Walters' Shocking Wild Ride

A NEW DOCUMENTARY REVEALS THE PRIVATE SIDE OF THE TRAILBLAZING JOURNALIST WHO OVERCAME A TROUBLED CHILDHOOD AND SEXISM TO PAVE THE WAY FOR SO MANY WOMEN BEHIND HER—WHILE NEVER BELIEVING SHE WAS GOOD ENOUGH

- GILLIAN TELLING

Paving a Path "Barbara Walters is really responsible in large part for my broadcast career," Cynthia McFadden says of the pioneering journalist's influence.

During Barbara Walters’s long reign as the queen of the intimate tell-all interview, it was an honor to be the subject of one of her legendary sitdowns. It was perhaps an even greater honor to receive an exclusive invite to one of her legendary dinner parties, held at her sprawling Fifth Avenue apartment in New York City.

Her Second Act In 1997 Walters (with Jenny McCarthy and Sherri Shepherd in 2014) co-created The View, a talk show hosted by women with varying opinions.

“These were highly intentional guest lists,” says ABC News executive producer David Sloan, a longtime friend, adding that Walters painstakingly curated the seating charts, placing notable guests like the Secretary of State next to a filmmaker next toa fashion designer. “They were people who were important but who also might be important to her.” Sloan notes that her wit and ability to schmooze with everyone she met was “an art form.” But behind her unrivaled technique was a “painful insecurity,” her friend and former NBC correspondent Cynthia McFadden tells People.

Inthe upcoming documentary