Barbara Walters rep says claim she ELBOWED Sage Steele into a WALL is ‘impossible to believe and uncharacteristic’ of late anchor
A representative of Barbara Walters’ estate has firmly denied that the late host pushed sports reporter Sage Steele backstage against a wall at The View.
Born to a black father and a white mother, Steele once debated Walters on The View about her decision to identify as “biracial,” even though then-President Barack Obama, who is of the same ethnic background, referred to herself as “black.” .
After the shoot, Steele says, Walters confronted her backstage and shoved her, sending her “up into the wall and into the trash.”
“This 140-year-old woman was just trying to tackle me!” Steele joked further The Megyn Kelly Show. She went on to claim that Walters’ co-host Whoopi Goldberg “pulled me aside” after the alleged elbows and said, “Don’t make her do it.”
After Steele’s comments became public, the Walters estate representative pushed for them Variety: ‘I find this impossible to believe and unusual for Barbara!’
Wow: Sports reporter Sage Steele (right) has accused the late Barbara Walters (left) of shoving her backstage against a wall on The View after a segment about Barack Obama
Barbara Walters retired from The View in 2014 and, after years of rumors that she suffered from dementia, passed away last December at the age of 93.
On Kelly’s podcast, Steele described her alleged encounter with Walters, saying that “it was Barbara, Whoopi and myself, in the dark green room off to the side.”
She added, “I was probably about a foot away from the wall and the garbage can and Barbara was right here in front of me.”
Steele continued, “And she just started backing up to me, and looked at me and got closer, and elbowed me, and it pushed me back against the wall and the garbage can.”
She claimed that “some producers saw it. Whoopi saw it, and Whoopi was like, “Come here,” and she was great, and she pulled me aside in her little area and she said, “Don’t let her do it,” and I’m like, “Sit I in a movie now? One of the legends in this industry just tried to beat me up!”
Her new interview as a bombshell came days after she settled a lawsuit with ESPN, officially parting ways with the network after more than a decade and a half “so I can more freely exercise my right to first amendment.”
Steele, who was a co-host on Sports Center, argued in her lawsuit that she was temporarily suspended and then “sidelined” by ESPN over comments she made during a podcast conversation with NFL alum Jay Cutler.
On that podcast, she strongly criticized the network’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, saying she personally “didn’t want” to be vaccinated, but eventually agreed.
Throwback: Steele made more than one appearance on The View with Barbara Walters, including this appearance on February 5, 2014
Return: Steele returned to the program on April 16, 2014, just a month before Walters announced her retirement from the program
Steele clarified that “I respect everyone’s decision” regarding the jab, but opined that “making it mandatory is sick” and “scary for me in a lot of ways.”
She received a deluge of backlash not only for her mandate, but also for her comments on the same podcast about how female sportscasters dress.
“So if you dress like that,” she said, “I’m not saying you deserve the rude comments, but you know what you’re doing if you put that outfit on, too.”
it was on the same podcast that she discussed her on-air fight with Barbara Walters about calling herself “biracial” while Barack Obama called herself “black.”
Steele said wryly that she found it “fascinating” for Obama to identify himself as black, “since his black father was nowhere to be found, but his white mother and grandmother raised him.” But hey, you do. I’m going to do me.’
Making her claims, “This 140-year-old woman was just trying to hit me!” Steele joked on a new episode of The Megyn Kelly Show where she’s pictured
Details: Steele says she received words of encouragement after the alleged elbows from Whoopi Goldberg, who is pictured on The View in 2012 with Walters and Michelle Obama
Her performance on Jay Cutler’s podcast sparked an outpouring of backlash, and as criticism mounted and Steele herself tested positive for COVID-19, ESPN decided to take her off the air for more than a week.
“At ESPN, we embrace diverse viewpoints — dialogue and discussion is what makes this place great,” the network statement said at the time.
“That said, we expect those views to be expressed respectfully, in a manner consistent with our values and in accordance with our internal policies.”
She eventually took the network to court, claiming in her lawsuit, “ESPN’s inconsistency in how it treated Steele compared to her peers shows that Steele was not only punished for exercising her constitutional right to free speech , but also because of the content of that expression. ‘
Earlier this week, it emerged that Steele would be leaving the network and the lawsuit had been settled, though exact terms were not disclosed.