Barbara Walters Had Affairs With Senator Edward Brooke

The affair of Barbara Walters and Senator Edward Brooke lasted several years in the 70’s. The View co-host tells Winfrey how their relationship could have ruined both of their careers.

“I was certainly involved. He was exciting. He was brilliant. It was exciting times in Washington,” Walters tells Winfrey.

A moderate Republican from Massachusetts who took office in 1967, Senator Edward Brooke was the first African-American to be popularly elected to the Senate. Both he and Walters knew that public knowledge of their affair could have ruined his career as well as hers, Walters says.

Senator Edward Brooke Biographical Notes

Brooke served as a U.S. senator for two terms, from January 3, 1967, to January 3, 1979. In 1967, he served on the President's Commission on Civil Disorders. He was a member of the liberal wing of the Republican Party and often had conflicts with President Richard Nixon, particularly in 1970, when Brooke helped lead the movement to stop the Senate confirmation of the President's nominee to the Supreme Court, Harrold Carswell. Brooke was re-elected in 1972, defeating Democrat John J. Droney 62%-34%. However, he lost much of his popularity during his second term after a contentious and widely-publicized divorce. He lost a bid for a third term in the Senate elections of 1978 in the general election to Paul Tsongas. He remains, as of 2008, the last Republican senator from Massachusetts.

The father of two daughters and a son, Brooke currently lives in Miami with his second wife, Anne.

On May 1, 2008, well-known TV journalist Barbara Walters told Oprah Winfrey, in a televised interview, that during the 1970s she had had an affair lasting several years with Brooke, then a Senator married to his first wife. Walters said that the affair ended to protect both of their careers from possible scandal.

Sources: By Trans World News and Wikipedia.