How Barbara Walters bypassed Secret Service and hid in the bathroom at Camp ... trends now
Barbara Walters bagged her biggest interviews by relentlessly charming her subjects and destroying her rivals, a new biography reveals.
The legendary TV journalist, who died aged 93 in 2022, stopped at nothing to get a story because of her 'unrelenting drive to dominate the news'.
Walters landed the first interview with Monica Lewinsky in the wake of her affair with President Bill Clinton by acting like her 'favorite aunt' and pushing out Oprah by offering the former White House intern a controversial deal worth at least $2.6million.
When the cameras started rolling, Walters demanded to know why Lewinsky told a grand jury about her sexual activities with the former President and a cigar.
With few scruples and buckets of ambition, Walters did things veteran journalists would not, like hiding in the visitors' bathroom at Camp David to try and get an exclusive interview with former President Jimmy Carter.
Barbara Walters famously landed the first interview with Monica Lewinsky after the Lewinsky-Clinton scandal in 1999 - after going great lengths to get it, a new book on the late journalist reveals
A White House intern at the time, Lewinsky made international headlines after it was revealed she had an affair with President Bill Clinton between 1995 and 1997
Sean Connery's 1987 interview with Barbara Walters would haunt him for the rest of his life after the late actor infamously told the journalist that it was 'not the worst thing to slap a woman now and then'
She made Ricky Martin squirm by asking him about his sexuality, a move which harmed his career and left him with PTSD.
Walters asked a young Brooke Shields what her measurements were, an intrusive question which left her furious decades later, writes Susan Page in, The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters,' available April 23.
Sean Connery infamously told Walters that he thought it was OK to hit a woman, comments which would haunt him for the rest of his life.
During her 50 years on TV dozens of celebrities like Christopher Reeve and Taylor Swift lined up to be given the Walters treatment: hard questions asked in a soft way.
Nothing was off limits for her sit downs on ABC's 20/20, where she put her focus on people and pushed TV journalism away from hard news, a move which was derided at the time but now seems ahead of its time.
Page writes that the biggest interview for Walters, remains Lewinsky which showcased Walters' indefatigability in pursuit of a story.
The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters by Susan Page is out April 23. Page is the Washington Bureau chief of USA TODAY whose previous books have been about Barbara Bush and Nancy Pelosi
The Lewinsky interview took place in 1998, Monica's first since her affair with Clinton. Page calls it the 'epitome of when the big TV interview could cause an earthquake'
'Barbara managed to be both empathetic and skeptical, just like many of those watching,' Page writes.
'When Monica said testifying before the grand jury about intimate details of her relationship with Clinton was 'very, very, violating', Barbara shot back: 'There is a question of why you offered so many intimate details to the prosecutor.
'I mean why, for example, tell them about the cigar business?'
'Monica replied that the grand jury already knew that salacious anecdote from prior testimony from her friends, an explanation that enhanced her credibility'.
Page describes in vivid detail how Walters got the interview by first charming Lewinsky's lawyer William Ginsbury by inviting him to the black tie gala in New York celebrating the 75th anniversary of Time magazine, where Clinton would be among the guests.
The next target was Lewinsky's father Bernard who did a sit-down chat with Walters defending his daughter.
That all led up to a meeting with the big prize: Lewinsky herself. Page writes that Walters turned the charm up to 11 and soon the conversation was like a 'niece with a favorite aunt'.
According to author Susan Page, Walters turned up the charm when courting Lewinsky which saw her successfully land the interview that aired on ABC in March 1999
The interview drew a record audience of 74 million and was what Page calls the 'epitome of when the big TV interview could cause an earthquake'
Lewinsky had been shopping and Walters cooed at her new hats. When Lewinsky said she was 'a good kid growing up' who never did drugs or stole, Walters made her laugh by saying: 'Next time, shoplift'.
The last barrier to Walters bagging the exclusive was Oprah, but the daytime talk queen refused to pay any money to Lewinsky because she thought it was a 'pay-for-play move'.
Walters, by contrast, was 'willing to be innovative in negotiating the financial terms', Page writes.
And to be clear 'Monica needed money', the book says, as she owed $1m in legal bills.
In the end top ABC executive David Westin proposed a 'very unusual' deal that Lewinsky agreed to: ABC wouldn't distribute the interview outside North America, which meant she sold an interview to Channel 4 in the UK for $660,000 and 75 percent of distribution sales.
British magazine Hello! paid her another $500,000 for a photo shoot and she got most of the $1.5 million advance for her authorized biography, written by Andrew Morton, best known for his bombshell book about Princess Diana.
It was all worth it: a staggering 74 million people in the US alone tuned in to watch, with millions more around the world.
Such major interviews helped Walters to get exclusive sit-downs with celebrities like Truman Capote.
Their conversation was so extensive it would serve as a crib sheet for the late actor Philip Seymour Hoffman who played him in the 2005 biopic - he won an Oscar for the part.
Connery, who died in 2020 at the age of 90, originally made the controversial comments in a previous 1965 interview but doubled down on his stance when grilled by Walters years later
Resurfaced clips of the infamous interview went viral after in the wake of Walters's death in December 2022
After sitting down with Grace Kelly after she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco and became Princess Grace, Walters asked her: 'Are you happy?'
Kelly answered that she had had 'many happy moments in my life' but once the cameras were off she began to cry.
Walters made news again when the late Prince Philip of England suggested that his wife, the late Queen Elizabeth II, might abdicate and turn the throne over to Prince Charles.
Walters had to write a note of apology to Philip, who responded by telling her not to worry.
Other celebrities who sat down with Walters included George Clooney and his wife Amal, Elon Musk and Oprah.
In 1980 Walters created a storm when she asked Richard Nixon: 'Are you sorry you didn't burn the tapes?'
He replied that he 'probably should have', the first time he made such an admission.
So many interviews with Walters ended in tears it became a trope.
Among them was the late actor Patrick Swayze who wept while talking about how he hoped he made his father proud.
But not every interview went well and Walters infamously told Bradley Cooper in 2015 he was 'very screwable'.
At the time she was 86 and he was 40, young enough to be her grandson.
Another vintage Walters moment was asking Carter, then the president-elect, and his wife Rosalynn whether they slept in a double or a twin bed.
Surprisingly, Carter answered candidly and said a double.
Walters sat down with actress Grace Kelly after she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco and became Princess Grace in 1961 during which she asked her a simple, but confronting question: 'Are you happy?'
At the time, Kelly answered that she had had 'many happy moments in my life' but once the cameras stopped she began to cry
Barbara Walters was the first to interview late actor Patrick Swayze at his California ranch on December 2008 since he revealed he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer
Walters tried to get Amy Schumer to admit
