The matriarch of ABC’s “The View” hasn’t been seen in a very long while. Barbara Walters is no spring chicken, by any means, she’s 93-years-old, so I wouldn’t expect she’d be bee-bopping around town or anything like that. But I also wouldn’t expect she’d be holed up in her NYC apartment, in pain, riddled with dementia. Love her or hate her, that’s no way to end such an interesting and remarkable life. Dementia is such a cruel, vicious disease.
Radar Online reported that failing recluse Barbara Walters has been spending her final days in a tragic prison of pain, sources tell RadarOnline.com.
Whoopi Goldberg gave Barbara, 93, a birthday shoutout this week on The View but viewers raised questions about the legendary newscaster due to her being MIA since 2016.
The TV icon hasn’t been seen in public since 2016. Walters has been suffering from advanced dementia, according to sources, the brains behind The View is said to rarely leave her bed and doesn’t even recognize her famous friends.”
“Barbara suffers from exhaustion and fatigue, as well as anxiety and agitation,” spilled an insider. “She’s very frail and spends a great deal of the day napping!”
Visitors are turned away from her New York digs, where sources said she is deteriorating so rapidly that ABC News is preparing her obituary and former colleagues whisper that her end is very near.
While protective pals and the star’s rep insisted she was fine in 2019, a source close to the newswoman told us, “Barbara is fading a little more every day. She’s close to the end and her team is scrambling to manage affairs just the way Barbara would want them.”
“Sadly, her dementia has been getting worse. [Her] caretaker give her the opportunity to make everyday decisions, but more often than not she’ll stare at them blankly. The source added The View ladies still reach out: “On good days, Barbara can distinguish Joy Behar’s voice, but on a bad day, she might just hang up!”
The source noted that caretakers get the impression her mind “turns off, like a blank screen on a television.”
Just think, it wasn’t that long ago that Barbara was phoning into “The View” to share her thoughts on certain topics with the other cat ladies. And now, just a few years later, she’s practically comatose.
I’m not a doctor and I don’t pretend to know what’s ailing Joe Biden’s brain, but many people believe, based on his confusing words and bumbling actions that he too is suffering from some form of dementia.
I will say this much, strictly from an “observational/personal” standpoint: I think there is a DRASTIC shift from Joe Biden in the 2020 campaign to now.
But I am not saying that he was “mentally fresh” in 2020. He wasn’t. We all saw the non-stop flubs and confusion, almost every time he left the “basement.” But it was a much milder version of what we see now.
It’s to the point now, where often, Joe can’t find his way off a small stage. He’s so confused and looks so lost and overwhelmed. And watching him try to read a teleprompter these days is painful. His face looks almost robotic, and he doesn’t blink. He’s trying so damn hard to get those words out, and almost without fail, he still screws up.
So yeah, back to what I said earlier, dementia is a very cruel, very vicious disease, and when you head into the “advanced stages” things can start moving quick, as they have with Barbara Walters.
It’s good that she has caretakers watching over her, and she’s able to stay at home, but it’s sad to hear she never gets out, and she’s suffering in pain.
I always liked Barbara. I enjoyed her interviews, and I thought she was among one of the most reasonable on “The View.” I think the show, drifted very far away from what she envisioned and became this really angry, low-info politically driven show, led by shrews show that is more popular for always being wrong than anything else.
I can’t imagine that seeing her “baby” morph into that was something she was pleased about. All that fighting and hate. Barbara was never about that. She was always calm and cool-headed.
I don’t know about you, but I wish her well, and I hope her heart is right with the Lord.
This post originally appeared on WayneDupree.com.