Sherri Shepherd and Joy Behar are spilling the tea about Barbara Walters’ alleged hookup with comedian Richard Pryor.
Shepherd, 56, and Behar, 81, reminisced about their time working with Walters — who died at age 93 in December 2022 — during the Wednesday, October 11, episode of Shepherd’s daytime talk show, Sherri.
“I came in and I told you, ‘[Late comedian] Paul Mooney said he caught Barbara with Richard Pryor, he walked in on them.’ And I said, ‘Don’t tell nobody,’” Shepherd recalled.
Although Shepherd — who worked with Behar on The View, which Walters created, from 2007 to 2013 — wished to keep the information a secret, her costar didn’t waste time asking Walters about the rumor.
“The next day, Barbara walks in and you go, ‘So, you [schtupping] Richard Pryor, huh?'” Shepherd recounted. “[Barbara] turned around … and she goes, ‘Who told you that?’ And I’m sitting there like, ‘I done just got this job.’”
Neither Shepherd nor Behar said whether Walters confirmed or denied the story about herself and Pryor, who died at age 65 in December 2005. However, Behar did claim that Pryor was the broadcast journalist’s type.
“Barbara liked a brother. She was going out with a Black senator,” Behar said, referring to Edward Brooke. (In her 2008 autobiography, Audition, Walters recalled having an affair with Brooke, who died at age 95 in 2015, in the 1970s.)
Shepherd echoed the sentiments, saying, “[Former Secretary of State] Colin Powell was her crush.”
In addition to discussing Walters’ romantic preferences, Shepherd admitted to being intimidated by the television icon.
“You liked it that I was scared of Barbara Walters. You used to laugh,” Shepherd told Behar. When Behar asked the actress what she found scary about Walters, Shepherd replied: “I don’t know. She was just so formidable.”
After Walters’ death, Behar sang her former costar’s praises during a December 2022 interview with Good Morning America.
“She’s very much the role model for a lot of people in showbiz and the news world for sure,” she said. “She had a work ethic you couldn’t deny. She was always prepared and she was always working on her material. She never went out there and didn’t know what she was doing.”
Behar also joked that Walters landed her many high-profile interviews due to her “incredible bladder” control.
“[She] never went to the bathroom,” the comedian explained. “And that’s why she could always jump on those interviews before anybody else did.”
Behar lovingly poked fun at Walters’ legacy again earlier this month when Spice Girls singer Geri Halliwell brought up Walters’ signature smile during an appearance on The View. Noting that a person’s mouth has to be “slightly open” to nail the Walters smile, Behar quipped, “Well, those are from her porn days.”
After the remark elected a shocked reaction from the show’s audience, Behar clarified, “I’m kidding. They know it’s a joke.”
