Who is Jackie Guber and where is she now? All about Barbara Walters daughter amid documentary release

The new Hulu documentary on Barbara Walters explores her illustrious career, but its trailer refrains from giving any insights into her personal life and relationship with her daughter, Jackie Guber, aka Jacqueline Dena Guber.

The former Today host shared her only child with her second husband, Lee Guber. Barbara had suffered three miscarriages and adopted a newborn baby girl in 1968. According to Us Weekly, Walters recounted in a 2014 conversation with Oprah Winfrey,

“We had dinner one night with a couple we rarely saw and the woman said that she had a little girl who was blonde and blue-eyed, and they wanted to adopt a boy … who was going to be tall. They didn’t want the girl. So, we said, ‘We’ll take the girl!’”

Jackie Guber was previously married to Mark Danforth, a licensed wilderness guide. The pair met after Walters’ only daughter moved to Northern Maine and married in 2000, per NBC News. Following her marriage to Danforth, Guber ran a wilderness program for troubled teenagers, namely “New Horizons.”

Jacqueline, named after her mother's sister, was once a troubled teen herself, as she allegedly used drugs, consumed alcohol, and ran away, according to Susan Page’s The Rulebreaker: The Life & Times of Barbara Walters. Jackie Guber had a strained relationship with her mother and spent three years at a boarding school, per People. She admitted in a 2002 interview with NBC News,

“I was a runaway. I loved to run. I thought running would solve all my problems.”

In 2008, Jackie Guber’s wilderness retreat shut down following financial trouble, per People. According to Parade, she is reportedly no longer married to Mark Danforth. Guber faced an arrest in Naples, Florida, in 2013 and was charged with DUI. At the time, there was a passenger in her vehicle who was believed to be her then-partner, not Danforth.

Despite her mother’s prominent career as a broadcast journalist and host of Today, 20/20, The View, and more, Jackie Guber has kept a low profile. Barbara Walters revealed during her retirement special in 2014 (via People Magazine),

“Jackie has found it difficult all her life because she wants to be anonymous, she just doesn't like to be a celebrity. She may be the only one in the world who doesn't like to be a celebrity.”

Ever since Walters died in 2022, her daughter has kept a low profile. According to the New York Post, Jackie sold her mother’s Florida condo following her dementia diagnosis. The property, which was supposed to be Barbara’s retreat, was transferred to Jacqueline in 2016.

Guber put the residence on sale after three months, and it was eventually sold in 2018. The news was reported in January 2023, after Barbara’s passing, and it was the last time anything was reported on Jackie Guber. According to a source (via the New York Post), the residence was sold in the wake of Walter’s deteriorating health.

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Barbara Walters and Jackie Guber had a dysfunctional relationship when the latter was a teen, according to Cynthia McFadden

The View host had a flourishing career that lasted many decades, but she seemingly faced some challenges in her personal life. Walters, who adopted Jackie in 1968, didn’t have an ideal relationship with her only daughter during her teen years. Cynthia McFadden, a former NBC correspondent and Walters’ friend, told People Magazine,

“She’d tell everyone, ‘I so admire your relationship with your children. She was very regretful about her family life. It was something she felt like she couldn’t fix. So that was really tugging at her.”

According to McFadden, the duo’s relationship remained strained, as Walters, who was more focused on her career, seemingly found it difficult to relate to her daughter. Her friend said,

“She couldn't understand someone like Jackie, who wasn't racing to the top.”

McFadden continued,

“They were just so dispositionally and physically unlike each other. It was a struggle. That's not to say they didn't love each other, but it wasn't what she'd hoped for, and probably not what Jackie had hoped for either.”

Cynthia asserted that “Jackie shouldn't be held accountable for any of this,” and added,

"Barbara wouldn't have wanted her to be [held accountable]. I think this [struggle] was really on the adult side of the equation here. Jackie is a delightful person.”

As mentioned, Jackie Guber had to spend three years at a boarding school. After she grew up, her relationship with Barbara Walters also improved. In different interviews, Jacqueline acknowledged her mother. She famously said in a 2002 NBC News interview,

“She [My mother] used to say that some mothers have babies from their tummies, and some have it from their heart. And you came from my heart.”

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Interestingly, Barbara Walters once hated her SNL parody “Baba Wawa,” but reportedly, her daughter (as a kid) helped change her perspective. In a 2022 interview with The Television Academy Foundation, the famous host claimed that she hated her Saturday Night Live skits featuring Baba Wawa (portrayed by Gilda Radner). Walters said that Jackie Guber, seven at the time, asked her to “lighten up.”