Barbara Walters ‘had secret FLING with Richard Pryor’ as Sherri Shepherd claims pair’s tryst was exposed when Paul Mooney walked in on them having sex

Barbara Walters had a secret affair with comedian Richard Pryor, claims Sherri Shepherd.

Famed journalist Walters – who died on December 30, 2022 aged 93 – allegedly exposed her torrid romance with Pryor when comedian Paul Mooney walked in on the couple having sex, Shepherd claims on Wednesday’s episode of Sherry.

During a chat with former The View co-star Joy Behar, 81, Shepherd said: “The thing about you is that I would say things to you and you would go and say them.

“I told you I ran into Paul Mooney, Paul Mooney said he caught Barbara Walters with Richard Pryor” before adding that Mooney confirmed that Walters had slept with Pryor.

‘And I came back and said, “Joey, guess what! Don’t tell anybody!”

Revealing that Mooney claimed to have seen the pair making out, Shepherd told a shocked Behar: “Paul Mooney said he ran into them, he ran into them. That’s what he said he looked through the door and… don’t act like you don’t remember!

And I said, “I’m glad, don’t tell anyone.”

“The next day, Barbara walks in and you’re like, ‘So you’re dating Richard Pryor, huh?’

“Barbara’s head just turned like that and she said ‘who told you that?'” and I’m sitting there, like I just got this job.

‘You’re doing it because you’re not afraid of Barbara.’

Shepard added that Behar had a guy and said, “She was dating a black senator (Edward Brooke) that she talked about in her book The Audition.” Colin Powell was her crush.’

It is not known when Walters and Pryor dated – the journalist interviewed him several times in the 1970s and 1980s.

Walters previously talked about interviewing Pryor four times in a 2002 interview with him Oprah, saying, “He’s fascinating because he’s more than just a comedian. I interviewed him four times.

“The second time was after it caught fire.” The third time was when he admitted to me that he had set himself on fire. I was moved by Richard Pryor because I saw this brilliant man self-destruct.’

Pryor, who died aged 65 in 2005, was known as one of the greatest stand-up comedians of all time and a notorious Lothario, who had seven children by six different women.

He was married seven times to five different women.

He famously had a relationship with Marlon Brando – with the meeting first revealed by legendary music producer Quincy Jones, who said the Godfather star would ‘fuck anyone’.

Pryor’s widow, Jennifer Lee, also revealed that he was open with his friends about his bisexuality.

One evening in June 1980, while watching a Buddhist monk self-immolate on television to protest the Vietnam War, Pryor doused his body in hard liquor and lit a Bitz lighter.

The flames reached his head and he flew out into the street.

His polyester shirt melted onto his burned flesh and he was in shock when an ambulance arrived to take him to the burn unit at Sherman Oaks Hospital.

Burns covered more than half of his body and he spent six weeks recovering in hospital.

Six years later, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the nervous system.

By 1991, his life was reduced to a bedroom in a rented mansion in Bel Air, high above the west side of Los Angeles.

Holding a .357 Magnum, he was afraid to move he was so thin and weak.

He asked Jennifer Lee to come back and see him off to the end.

On December 10, 2005, at the age of 65, he suffered a fatal heart attack.

Walters made headlines in 1976 when she joined ABC News as the first female anchor of the evening news, earning an unprecedented salary of $1 million. She became the co-host of the show ’20/20′, and in 1997 she launched ‘The View’.

“She lived her life with no regrets.” “She was a pioneer not only for female journalists, but for all women,” her publicist Cindy Berger said in a statement.

Her will was legendary as she competed – not only with rival networks, but with colleagues at her own network – for every big ‘catch’ in a world jammed with more and more interviewers, including female reporters hot on her heels.

“Barbara was a true legend, a pioneer not only for women in journalism, but also for journalism itself.” “She was a unique reporter who conducted many of the most important interviews of our time, from heads of state to the biggest celebrities and sports icons,” Iger said in a statement Friday.

“I have had the pleasure of calling Barbara a colleague for over three decades, but more importantly, I have been able to call her a dear friend. She will be missed by all of us at The Walt Disney Company, and our deepest condolences go out to her daughter, Jacqueline.’

During nearly four decades on ABC, and before that on NBC, Walters’ exclusive interviews with rulers, nobles and entertainers earned her celebrity status to rank with theirs, while placing her at the forefront of a trend that made stars of TV reporters.

Late in her career, she gave infotainment a new twist with ‘The View’, a lively weekday ABC coffeehouse with an all-female panel for which any topic was on the table and which welcomed guests from world leaders to teen idols. With that side venture and an unexpected hit, Walters considered ‘The View’ the ‘dessert’ of her career.

Along with Bob Iger, big names like Oprah, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Dan Rather paid tribute to the TV icon.