Former ESPN sportscaster Sage Steele has alleged that the late Barbara Walters physically accosted her backstage while filming The View.
Trailblazing journalist Walters, who died last year aged 93, created, produced and co-hosted The View for 17 seasons between 1997 and 2014.
“It was Barbara, Whoopi [Goldberg] and myself in the dark green room off to the side,” Steele said on The Megyn Kelly Show podcast on Thursday (17 August).
“I was probably about four feet from the wall and the trash can, and Barbara was standing over here in front of me. She just started to back up toward me and looked at me and got close and elbowed me, and it pushed me back into the wall and the trash can. I was like, ‘What did [she] just do to me? This 140-year-old woman just tried to like tackle me.’”
The presenter said the incident occurred following a segment about Barack Obama on the popular US talk show. Steele served as a guest co-host of The View for five episodes in 2014.
Steele alleged: “Some of the producers saw it. Whoopi saw it. And Whoopi was like, ‘Come here.’ She was great. She pulled me aside in her little area and she’s like, ‘Don’t you let her do it.’ And I’m like, ‘Am I in a movie right now?’ One of the legends in this industry just tried to beat me up!”
A representative for Walters’s estate responded to Steele’s accusations in an email to The Independent, writing: “I find this impossible to believe and uncharacteristic of Barbara!”
The Independent has contacted Goldberg’s representatives for comment.
On Tuesday (15 August), Steele announced that she had settled a lawsuit she filed after being disciplined for comments she made about ESPN’s policy requiring employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
“Having successfully settled my case with ESPN/Disney, I have decided to leave so I can exercise my first amendment rights more freely,” she wrote. “I am grateful for so many wonderful experiences over the past 16 years and am excited for my next chapter!”
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Steele was taken off the air for 10 days in October 2021 and pulled from several high-profile assignments, including coverage of the New York City Marathon, the Rose Parade, and the annual ESPNW Summit, because she criticized ESPN and The Walt Disney Company’s requirement that employees be vaccinated against COVID-19, according to her lawsuit, which was filed in May 2022 in Connecticut Superior Court.
She also was required to make a public apology, the lawsuit said.
“ESPN and Sage Steele have mutually agreed to part ways,” spokesman Josh Krulewitz wrote. “We thank her for her many contributions over the years.”
