Former ESPN host Sage Steele has accused legendary broadcaster Barbara Walters of assaulting her backstage at The View.
During SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Show on Thursday (August 17), Kelly asked Steele about the alleged physical run-in with Walters, who died last December at the age of 93. Steele says the incident happened after a segment about former President Barack Obama.
“It was Barbara, Whoopi [Goldberg], and myself in the dark greenroom on the side,” Steele recalled. “I was probably four feet from the wall and the trash can, and Barbara was standing over here in front of me, and she just started to back up towards me and looked at me and got close and elbowed me, and it pushed me back into the wall and the trash can.”
The former NBA Countdown host continued, “I was like, ‘What did [she] just do to me? This 140-year-old woman just tried to like tackle me.’”
Steele said she was shocked when it happened, but Goldberg came over to console her.
“Some of the producers saw it,” Steele added. “Whoopi saw it, and she was like, ‘Come here.’ And she was great. And she pulled me aside in her little area, and she’s like, ‘Don’t you let her do it.’ I’m like, am I in a movie right now? One of the legends in this industry just tried to beat me up!”
Steele had previously talked about her issues with Walters during an appearance on Uncut with Jay Cutler, where she mentioned an alleged incident on The View in which Walters criticized Steele for identifying as biracial in relation to Obama’s decision to identify solely as Black. Steele later claimed that ESPN dropped her for her comments on Cutler’s podcast.
In April, Steele sued ESPN and its parent company Disney for breach of contract. The lawsuit is now settled, and Steele officially left the network on Tuesday, August 15. An ESPN spokesperson told TheWrap that the network and Steele “mutually agreed to part ways.”
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
