Barbara Walters kicked off her yearlong retirement party today on The View, where she announced that she will stop appearing on television in the summer of 2014, but will remain an executive producer on the morning talk show. The segment was a who’s who of ABC executives, with a guest appearance from a fellow almost-retiree Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The mayor praised Walters for “open[ing] up a whole career for women.” (Walters told the New York Times that she was proud to have used her NBC contract to change the job title from “Today girl” to “co-host.”)
“I love you,” Walters told the mayor. She thanked him for being “good to the show.”
Asked what Bloomberg plans to do after City Hall, he said, “If you and I went away, Diana probably wouldn’t notice for a few days.”
“Did you tell them about our personal relationship?” he asked.
Walters, 83, confessed that she once described the mayor as her ideal husband on-air. “I thought he’s cute as can be and he’s rich, so we were married on the show,” she said. “It was never consummated.”
“Hope springs eternal,” quipped the Mayor, 71. So, evidently, does libido.
