ENTERTAINMENT'She'd Tell Me to Shut Up': Barbara Walters Would Give 'Tough Love' on 'The View,' Admits Former Co-Host Debbie Matenopoulos
Debbie Matenopoulos was a co-host on 'The View' from 1997 to 1999.
Debbie Matenopoulos returned to her old stomping grounds!
On Wednesday, June 18, the TV personality was back on The View for a segment about her latest cookbook, but she started off her chat with the co-hosts by raving over how much she enjoyed working with Barbara Walters on the show in the late '90s — even though the late star gave her a lot of "tough love."
Barbara Walters Taught Debbie Matenopoulos About Journalism on 'The View'
Debbie Matenopoulos was a guest on the June 18 episode of 'The View' more than two decades after she was a co-host.
"Everybody knows, Barbara was the first. She was a trailblazer, she paved the way for all of us," the chef raved. "She taught me everything I know about journalism. I went to journalism school in NYU and that was nothing compared to sitting next to her. It was like a master class in journalism in every day."
Matenopoulos declared Walters was "arguably the best female interviewer of all time."
Matenopoulos Admits Walters Would Kick Her Under the Table
The chef admitted Barbara Walters would sometimes kick her under the table during live tapings of 'The View.'
Matenopoulos recalled how Walters would instill her with confidence, spilling, "She would take my [note] cards and say, 'You don't need your cards, baby!'"
"Did she kick you under the table?" Joy Behar asked.
"She kicked me [under the table], she pinched me, I got the church pinch, she'd tell me to shut up. It was tough love," the cookbook author admitted. "She told me when to speak and when not to speak — that was more important part."
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Barbara Walters' Tough Upbringing
The Hulu documentary 'Barbara Walters Tell Me Everything' revisits her early days as a working woman.
"As tough as she was — she was always prepared, tenacious — as tough as she was, she was also really gentle, and I don't think a lot of people know that," the TV personality shared. "She had this empathy and sympathy for people, I think, because she had such a tough life growing up."
Matenopoulos was on the talk show from its inception in 1997 to 1999, while Walters began in '97 and stepped down in 2014.
Some of Walters' upbringing is discussed in the Hulu documentary Barbara Walters Tell Me Everything, which debuts on Monday, June 23.
In an interview about the doc, ABC News senior executive producer David Sloan told a magazine that Walters' "road to success was paved with potholes and peril and naysayers."
Matenopoulos called the late star 'arguably the best female interviewer of all time.'
The late TV icon — who passed away in December 2022 at age 93 — entered the workforce early after her father's nightclub business shut down.
"She took that responsibility very seriously," her pal Cynthia McFadden revealed of Walters being the breadwinner in her family after she started as a writer on Today.
The 20/20 alum then moved to in front of the camera, and in 1976, she became ABC's first female nightly news co-anchor.
