The longtime journalist died on Dec. 30 at the age of 93.
Sherri Shepherd and Debbie Matenopoulos are looking back on their time working with Barbara Walters. ET spoke with the former The View co-hosts about the trailblazing journalist, who died on Dec. 30 at the age of 93, about their relationship with Walters on and off camera.
"What you saw on the show versus on-on-one with Barbara -- completely different when I said on The View, whenever Barbara would say, 'I want to have dinner with you, dear,' I was like, 'What did I do now?.' We would go out to dinner, hold hands, laugh so much," Shepherd shared.
She continued, "We talked about sex nonstop. She gave me marriage advice. Barbara said, 'You always get with men who take your money, don't get married anymore. You need to become a lesbian, but come to think of it, a lesbian would probably take your money too.' So I mean, that was Barbara. She had a wonderful, wicked sense of humor and she supported me in everything I did. Came to every show that I did. She just was supportive and loving and funny."
For Matenopoulos, it was much of the same, with the TV personality sharing the mutual respect and love the pair had for one another.
"We were so open with one another, yet she was so tough on me, and I think the world knew that. It was not a secret she was tough on me publicly on the show, but it was OK because I needed somebody to teach me and sometimes, tough love is the best kind of love 'cause you learn very quickly," Matenopoulos explained. "We had a mutual respect for one another and a mutual love for one another, and I really fell into that sort of daughter role for her, and she really was like my mom, and I didn’t want to disappoint her, I didn’t want to, I just wanted to make her proud."
While Walters had largely remained out of the public eye since her exit from The View in 2014, she stayed in touch with both Shepherd and Matenopoulos via email and even sent notes to her former co-hosts by mail.
"If you’re doing something and Barbara saw it, you always got a handwritten note. That’s one thing that I learned from Barbara," the Sherri show host said. "I got a thousand cards that say, 'Sherri.' Handwritten notes are really important, so it wasn’t that she would call, it was you would get a note written in the mail saying, 'I support you, you were lovely, darling.' I have those notes still that Barbara sent me."
Matenopoulos added, "She still used to email. She was really great about that. Not so much on the text but she would email."
The View honored Walters Tuesday in their first show back after holiday break. The show started with a montage and a tribute to Walters, calling her "the woman who changed the way the world watches daytime TV."
"It's her vision, her passion, her show, and today, The View remembers Barbara Walters," the intro concluded before Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar took the stage alongside co-hosts Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines and Alyssa Farah Griffin.
Shepherd and Matenopoulos were also in attendance, where they shared more of their favorite memories of the late journalist.
Walters "single-handedly changed my life. I was a 22-year-old journalism student when she picked me to sit next to her on this show," Matenopoulous shared Tuesday.
While no cause of death has yet been given, Disney CEO Bob Iger tweeted that Walters died on Friday evening at her home in New York.
See more in the video below.
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