Sherri Shepherd won't forget her last interaction with Barbara Walters on The View.
During a segment of her talk show Sherri, The View alum recounted the moment Walters packed her bags and left the set of her brainchild show for the last time.
Shepherd said Walters was just about to get in an elevator when the journalism trailblazer put her hand on Shepherd's face. "She said, 'Dear, I love you,'" Shepherd recalled, prompting a group "aw" from the Sherri audience.
"The doors opened and she stepped into the elevator and I started crying," Shepherd continued. "Y'all know I'm a crier. I started boohoo-ing. And as the elevator doors close, she [yells back] 'What are you crying for?'"
Walters died in December at the age of 93. She was the first woman ever to anchor a news show in the 1970s, and paved the way for women in journalism. Shepherd honored Walters' incredible achievements in news, as well as the ways she taught Shepherd to own her authority.
Shepherd still remembers one of the best pieces of advice given to her by Walters after a viral — yet tumultuous — interview with then-presidential candidate John McCain on The View. Shepherd said there had been an order in which the women would ask questions. However, that became irrelevant when her co-hosts began asking follow-up questions.
Shepherd asked no questions during the segment, frustrated that she couldn't get a word in. In a debrief of the segment, Walters was stern but supportive about Shepherd's silence. "She said, 'Dear, I'm gonna say this. I'm gonna say it one time. You have to speak up or you will get left behind.'"
Shepherd reflected, "I was just ready to follow the rules. I was a nice girl — and I learned that from Barbara, you have to jump in. You have to speak."
Shepherd also praised Walters for creating a "sisterhood" on The View in conversation with Entertainment Tonight. "When I heard the news, I immediately texted Joy [Behar], and immediately texted Whoopi [Goldberg] and Elisabeth [Hasselbeck] texted me, so, we were all on the phone," Shepherd said. "That's a sisterhood that just, the bonds never break."
