Why did Barbara Walters feel so threatened by Diane Sawyer, according to the doc director?

In the new documentary Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything, fans are getting a glimpse into the broadcast journalist's relationship with Diana Sawyer.

The forthcoming documentary sees director Jackie Jesko chronicle Barbara Walters' legendary life, career, and feelings towards Sawyer. One of the former 20/20 executive producers, Victor Neufeld, can be heard saying in the film:

"Barbara did not know why Diane was hired to start a new news magazine within our home of ABC to compete with 20/20. Barbara was unhappy."

People Magazine has reported that the news reporter was infamous for her competitive nature, though she was more intimidated by Diane Sawyer's looks, as she never thought herself pretty. One of her friends, Cynthia McFadden, can be heard recounting in the film how Walters, who died in 2022 at the age of 93, once referred to Sawyer:

"She used the word blonde goddess."

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The life and legacy of Barbara Walters, legendary news anchor, explored as those who knew her say she was calculating and insecure: Read more

Cynthia McFadden also spoke to People Magazine about how Barbara Walters could be "painfully insecure."

"She thought Diane was the ideal woman, and she couldn't compete with that. She could work harder. She could know more people. But she couldn't compete with the blonde goddess," she said.

The Emmy-winning director, Jesko, told the New York Post about the documentary:

“This isn’t a hagiography, and it was never intended to be. I think with someone like Barbara, people know that she was a difficult person and a complicated person, and it would be ridiculous to make something about her that didn’t include that.”

The documentary chronicles Barbara Walters' career as the first woman to ever co-anchor a national news show on prime TV, and her knack for breaking through the male-dominated industry back in the 1970s. It looks at her rise to fame on Today, 20/20, and The View, as well as her personal life, like her friendship with Roy Cohn and rocky bond with her daughter, Jackie Guber.

“I thought it revealed a lot about Barbara and sort of what made her tick and what she was insecure about,” Jesko told The Post of Walters' issues with Diane. “I do understand that it makes sense that Barbara would have been extremely threatened by Diane Sawyer,” she added.

Jesko, who said that Sawyer's talent was on par with Barbara Walters, was “beautiful” in the way that “Barbara wished she had been.” She added,

“You probably catch in the film that she talks about herself as ugly kind of a lot, which is really quite shocking when you see the photos and videos of her or so when she was much younger. You’re like, ‘Wow, you were absolutely beautiful. What are you talking about?’”

She went on:

“But I think that she didn’t match the beauty standard of the ’60s, which was much more Diane Sawyer than it was Barbara Walters,” Jesko explained. “Her whole life, she always felt lesser than in some way. And for a mix of reasons, Diane brought that out in her.”

In the film, 20/20 producer Martin Clancy can be heard saying, according to People Magazine:

"Barbara watched Diane warily, because she was really in the same altitude as Barbara. Other correspondents were not a threat. I think Barbara secretly resented Diane for being younger."

The founder of The View did not have “the strongest moral compass,” her book editor, Peter Ethers, says in the new documentary.

“She was obsessed with three things: She was obsessed with money, fame and power." He went on, “A lot of the relationships she developed were career moves, and she was a pretty transactional person."

Per the New York Post, one of these relationships included Donald Trump's mentor, attorney Roy Cohn. He famously helped her father with losing the tax evasion charges, and even though he was homos*xual, the two once considered getting married.

Other interviews include Oprah Winfrey, Connie Chung, Katie Couric, Joy Behar, and Monica Lewinsky.

“I hadn’t realized exactly how much Barbara had impacted her life — Oprah saw [Walters] as a roadmap for herself. I found it touching, and I found that really interesting,” Jesko continued.

As for her take on Barbara Walters' controversial bond with Cohn, Jesko said:

“It was very revealing that she was so close to this man, and that she didn’t seem to mind a lot of the things he did, which were terrible in his life … she stood by him even at the time when it was very disadvantageous for her to do so.” She added, “So, theirs must have been a true friendship on some level.”

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The New York Post has reported that the forthcoming documentary fails to cover Barbara Walters' ailing health in the later stages of her life, which reportedly included dementia. However, this remains to be confirmed.