From chicken pox and a fall that led to hospitalization to a shake up at "The View," 2013 hasn't exactly been easy on 83-year-old Barbara Walters.
The TV vet is now said to be setting the stage for her retirement after a 52-year-long career.
Deadline's TV editor Nellie Andreeva reports:
I’ve learned a plan has been put in place for Walters to announce her retirement, eyed for May 2014. Fitting for Walters’ status as the grand dame of TV journalism and a signature face of ABC News, I hear she would be given a big sendoff with retrospectives and other special content in the weeks leading to her retirement that would celebrate her 52-year broadcast career. Walters had been determined to leave on her own terms, so it is unclear whether revealing the plans would make her change her mind and whether she would go for a full retirement or keep some TV presence with occasional appearances and specials.
Walters was previously rumored to be retiring in 2011 after she accidentally remarked to President Obama into an open mic during a break in their interview that “I’m retiring next year.”
ABC News dismissed the comment as a joke at the time and Walters did not, in fact, retire last year — but it appears that's "The View" for next year.
SEE ALSO: NBC has reportedly offered Matt Lauer's job to Anderson Cooper >
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