Barbara Walters: An Unauthorized Biography

Description for BARBARA WALTERS: AN UNAUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY by Jerry Oppenheimer:

She's driven, insecure, a compulsive ego-centered perfectionist---and extremely successful. She's Barbara Walters, America's First Lady of TV journalism. This complex dynamo has fascinated millions with her controversial style and head-line-making scoops, probing the most famous and infamous celebrities and political figures of our time. But Walters herself has become an enigma intensely private and guarded, permitting only carefully prepared tidbits to be reported by friendly columnists and reporters.

Now, as she competes her third remarkable decade in broadcasting---more famous and powerful than ever---the skillfully constructed wall of secrecy and the carefully cultivated image has been pierced in this revealing, unauthorized biography by investigative journalist Jerry Oppenheimer, based on more than four hundred exclusive, in-depth interviews with family members, childhood and college friends, confidantes, the men in her life, and colleagues. Oppenheimer debunks the myths and dispels the fallacies about Barbara Walters and brings into focus for the first time:

*her traumatic childhood as the daughter of a nightclub impresario and compulsive gambler.

*The sad family secret of her only sister.

*Her roller-coaster early years in Boston, Miami, and new York.

*Her shy, unhappy, and angry life as a young woman

*Her clever orchestration of her rise to the top.

*Her curious, often unsuccessful relationships with men, including the intense bond with red-baiter and mob-mouthpiece Roy Cohn.

*The untold stories of her three marriages.

*Her conflicts and guilt about juggling a high-powered career and the demands of motherhood, plus the problems she and her adopted daughter faced.

*The behind-the-scenes intrigues with Harry Reasoner, Hugh Downs, Geraldo Rivera, and other present former colleagues.