Jenny McCarthy Reveals Barbara Walters’ Late Life Medical Issues

Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg was one of the co-hosts of The View when Barbara Walters was still on the show. Walters created the daytime talk show and wanted to bring on several women with differing views to discuss current issues. McCarthy was a conservative voice on the show and a nice bouncing board for Walters.

Now, McCarthy is revealing some personal medical updates about Walters. She is specifically discussing that she saw dementia setting in for Walters before the long-time journalist’s death. Here is what you need to know.

Jenny McCarthy Says Barbara Walters Had Dementia

After a long and illustrious journalistic career, Barbara Walters created The View in 1997. She remained on the show for years before retiring. She died in December 2022. While there have been some reports that Walters suffered from dementia, no one officially confirmed the diagnosis.

Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg has thrown her voice into the debate, and she says that she saw Walters exhibiting signs of dementia years before her death. McCarthy was talking to Maria Menounos on an episode of the Heal Squad podcast. Jenny spoke about joining the show in 2013 to bring her fresh energy to the show. Things didn’t work out for her on The View.

“They wanted to do a flip of the whole show and be like, ‘Let’s lighten it up,’” Jenny said (via Heat Squad). “‘Let’s lighten up The View. Let’s bring Jenny on for a pop culture, buzzy girl that is more fluffy, and that is my speed.”

A week into her gig on The View, Jenny said she was talking to Barbara Walters about Katy Perry. Barbara had just interviewed Katy about being among the “10 Most Famous People of the Year.” However, when Jenny spoke to her after the interview, Barbara claimed she had no idea who Katy Perry was and didn’t remember interviewing her.

“It was the first sign that I realized that Barbara was suffering from beginning stages of dementia,” Jenny said.

Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg On Her Failure On The View

It turned out that The View Season 17 was the final one for both Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg and Barbara Walters. While Jenny only lasted one season, Barbara was on the show she created for 17 seasons. Walters retired in 2014, and the show fired both Jenny and Sherri Shepherd one month later.

Jenny said the show wasn’t sure what it was meant to be in Season 17. “They were like, ‘We’re flipping it. There’s no more pop culture, we’re going back to politics,’” Jenny said. “So she didn’t look bad. She knew politics, but she didn’t know pop culture. And I was like, ‘Well, I’m screwed here because I am not political.’ I don’t even know what I was raised as, a Democrat or Republican, that’s how far removed I was from it.”

She also said that her time on The View was the worst of her career. She said that the producers came in before the shows to prep her to have an opposing point of view to the other women. However, Jenny said she didn’t like it because she didn’t care about politics.

What are your thoughts on Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg saying that Barbara Walters had signs of dementia before her retirement and years before her death? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.