‘The View’ Reunites Cohosts to Pay Tribute to Barbara Walters After Her Death

Paying their respects. The View brought together former and current cohosts to celebrate the life of Barbara Walters.

“People have been talking about her on all of the shows, but we knew her better than anyone. We had dinners with her, we hung out with her and we fooled around with her,” Joy Behar shared during the Tuesday, January 3, episode of the ABC talk show. “The thing about her is she very much defied sexism and she defied ageism. She was not just a friend to us; she was one of a kind and very important to the industry.”

Meanwhile, Whoopi Goldberg praised Walters for the way she uplifted fellow journalists.

“Tributes are pouring in from around the world to celebrate the life of Barbara Walters, and today we are remembering our friend and colleague — and the reason why we are all sitting here,” the actress, 67, said. “If not for her, I don’t know where most of us would be. … The industry had to respect her, she did not allow them not to respect her.”

As the tributes continued, Sunny Hostin noted that Walters offered her valuable advice that helped her career.

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“When I started cohosting, I was changing my questions on my cards,” the TV host, 54, recalled. “I don’t know if you ladies remember that I was changing them and rewriting them, not realizing that maybe that wasn’t appropriate. And she came over to me, there’s a picture of it, and said, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘This is not my voice, I’m rewriting my questions, is that OK?’ She said, ‘I rewrite mine,’ and she started helping me.”

The New York City native continued: “The generosity of that moment. I was so scared and I was so nervous, and she validated my opinion. And after that day, she would ask me during the Hot Topics meeting, ‘Well, what do you think, Sunny?’ And I was like, ‘Barbara Walters is asking me what I think.’”

The late broadcast journalist died at age 93 on Friday, December 30.

“Barbara Walters passed away peacefully in her home surrounded by loved ones,” Cindy Bergerthe TV presenter’s publicist, told Us Weekly in a statement at the time. “She lived her life with no regrets. She was a trailblazer not only for female journalists but for all women.”

Scroll down for everything former and current View cohosts had to say about Walters:

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Meredith Vieira

The Rhode Island native, who appeared on The View from 1997 until 2006, recalled Walters’ love for Halloween.

“I don’t want to play armchair psychologist here, but in a way, Barbara played a role every day of her life, the role of being Barbara Walters,” Vieira said. “And she knew all the words used to describe her: icon, trailblazer, legend, that’s a tough reputation to live up to and to protect. So she couldn’t reveal other sides of herself, she couldn’t really let loose — except on our show at Halloween.”

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Star Jones

The lawyer, who was a host for nine seasons through the years, said she loved spending time with Walters outside of the studio.

“She introduced me to the Upper East Side social scene. You think being next to her at the table of The View was amazing — but the best seat in the house in any social event was next to Barbara Walters,” Jones explained. “Because she could tell everything about everybody in the room. [She] either interviewed them, did a story on them, heard a story about them and she would dish with the best of them.”

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Joy Behar

“She started The View when she was 68 years old — very few people start a new career at that age. And also, she had no mentors or role models because she was the original role model for everybody else,” the comedian noted.

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Debbie Matenopoulos

The journalist, who was a cohost from 1997 to 1998, said her late coworker “singlehandedly changed” her life.

“She took a huge chance on me. She taught me everything,” Matenopoulos shared. “It was incredible. It was like taking a masterclass in journalism with the most well-respected, well-renowned female journalist in history. It was unbelievable.”

She added: “Lots of people owe her so much, especially us women. Women in television — not just journalism. I owe her everything, I would not have this career if she did not choose me.”

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Lisa Ling

According to Ling, getting to work alongside Walters on The View was a “surreal” experience. “I had been watching Barbara all of my life and here she was sitting right next to me on my left. It was just an incredible feeling,” the California native, who appeared on the talk show from 1999 to 2002, shared.

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Elisabeth Hasselbeck

“[Barbara and I] had a layered relationship. She was my TV mom and my mentor like she is to all of you. For 10 years I had the privilege of sitting next to Barbara Walters and getting a masters in broadcasting,” Hasselbeck said. “She was compassionately curious and she gave her guests the chance to really express themselves in a safe way. And we all benefitted from that. She gave me a chance and she changed my life.”

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Whoopi Goldberg

“If not for her, I don’t know where most of us would be,” the Sister Act star admitted during the special episode of the talk show. “The industry had to respect her, she did not allow them not to respect her.”

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Sherri Shepherd

The Daytime Emmy nominee jokingly recalled the advice Walters gave her about marriage.

“I know that when she would ask me to go to dinner I was always so scared,” Shepherd revealed. “We would have so much fun and she would give me advice about marriage. She said to me when she threw my bridal shower, ‘You always get with these men who take your money all the time. Stop getting married to men who take your money.'”