Sportscaster Sage Steele has accused the late Barbara Walters of elbowing her backstage at The View after a feature about Barack Obama.
Steele, who was born to a black father and white mother, once debated with Walters on The View about her decision to identify as “biracial” despite the then-US president, who shares the same ethnic background, himself self-described as “black”.
After the taping, Steele says, Walters confronted her backstage and gave her a shove that threw her “against the wall and the trash can.”
“This 140-year-old woman just tried to attack me!” Steele quipped on The Megyn Kelly Show. She further claimed that after the alleged elbow bump, Walters’ co-host Whoopi Goldberg “pulled me aside” and said, “Don’t let her do that.”
After Steele’s comments became public, a representative for the Walters estate insisted to Variety, “I find this impossible to believe and uncharacteristic of Barbara!”
Wow: Sportscaster Sage Steele (right) has accused the late Barbara Walters (left) of elbowing her backstage at The View after a segment on Barack Obama
Barbara Walters retired from The View in 2014 and died last December at the age of 93 after years of rumors that she had dementia.
On Kelly’s podcast, Steele detailed her alleged encounter with Walters, saying, “It was Barbara, Whoopi and I in the dark green room next to it.”
She added, “I was probably about a foot away from the wall and the trash can and Barbara was standing here in front of me.”
Steele continued, “And she just started backing up to me, looked at me, came close and elbowed me, and that pushed me back against the wall and the trash can.”
She claimed that “some of the producers saw it.” Whoopi saw it and Whoopi said come here and she was awesome and she pulled me aside in her little space and said don’t let her do that and I said am I in a movie right now? One of the legends of this industry just tried to beat me up!”
Her bombastic new interview came days after a dispute with ESPN was settled, and after more than a decade and a half, she officially parted ways with the network “so I can exercise my First Amendment rights more freely.”
Steele, a former Sports Center co-anchor, argued in her lawsuit that she was temporarily suspended and then “sidelined” by ESPN over remarks she made during a podcast conversation with NFL grad Jay Cutler “ was set.
On that podcast, she slammed the network’s COVID-19 vaccination requirement, saying that she personally “didn’t want to get vaccinated” but ultimately agreed to it.
Flashback: Steele appeared on “The View with Barbara Walters” more than once, including this performance on February 5, 2014
Return: Steele returned to the program on April 16, 2014, just a month before Walters announced her departure from the program
Steele clarified that “I respect everyone’s decision regarding vaccination,” but took the view that ordering it is “sick” and “in many ways scary for me.”
She received a barrage of backlash not only for her mandate position, but also for her comments on the same podcast about women sports reporters’ attire.
“So when you dress like that,” she said, “I’m not saying you deserve the rude comments, but you also know what you’re doing when you put on that outfit.”
In the same podcast, she discussed her on-air dispute with Barbara Walters over calling herself “biracial” while Barack Obama called himself “black.”
Steele wryly said that she found Obama “intriguing” to refer to himself as black, “considering his black father was nowhere to be found, but his white mother and grandma raised him.” But hey, you do. I will do it.’
She claims, “This 140-year-old woman just tried to attack me!” Steele quipped in a new episode of The Megyn Kelly Show, in which she is pictured
Details: Steele says she received words of encouragement after the alleged elbow bump from Whoopi Goldberg, who starred in 2012’s The View with Walters and Michelle Obama
Her appearance on the Jay Cutler podcast sparked a spate of backlash, and as criticism mounted and Steele herself tested positive for COVID-19, ESPN decided to take her off the air for over a week.
“We have different viewpoints at ESPN – dialogue and discussion make this place great,” the network statement said at the time.
“Nevertheless, we expect these viewpoints to be expressed respectfully, in line with our values and consistent with our internal policies.”
She eventually took the network to court, arguing in her lawsuit, “ESPN’s inconsistency in the way Steele was treated compared to her peers demonstrates that Steele was not solely responsible for exercising her constitutional right to free speech was punished, but also for the content of that speech.” ‘
It was announced earlier this week that Steele was leaving the network and the lawsuit had been settled, but the exact terms were not disclosed.