Sherri Shepherd recalled her fear of being fired from The View after telling cohost Joy Behar about an alleged hookup between show creator Barbara Walters and comedian Richard Pryor.
The Sherri host, 56 — who cohosted The View from 2007 to 2014 — remembered telling Behar, 81, about the supposed tryst and urged her not to repeat it, Shepherd shared on the Wednesday, October 18, on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen.
“As soon as Barbara walked in the next day, Joy goes, ‘Oh! You’re schlepping Richard Pryor. And I was like, I just got the job. Like, I’m gonna get fired.”
Fortunately for Shepherd, Behar “never ratted” when Walters asked her “who told.” However, after that incident, Sherri said she no longer shared secrets with Behar — who still cohosts the show — and “still [doesn’t] tell [her] nothing.”
Shepherd told Cohen, 55, that she initially heard the rumor from Paul Mooney, who cowrote Pryor’s 1986 biographical film, Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling and appeared alongside the late actor in several movies.
“We were talking,” Sherri explained. “He walked in or peeked through the door and said Richard Pryor and Barbara Walters were intimate.”
Walters launched The View in 1997, and served as one of the hosts until 2014. She died in December 2022 at age 93. Pryor, for his part, starred in numerous films from 1967 to 1997, winning five Grammy Awards over the course of his career for his comedy albums. The comedian died in 2005 at age 65.
Shepherd previously mentioned the incident on her talk show earlier this month when Behar was her guest. Behar said that Walters “liked a brother,” and claimed that the iconic broadcaster also hooked up with former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and former Massachusetts Senator. Edward Brooke.
After Walters’ death last year, Shepherd told E! News that the award-winning journalist had a “bawdy sense of humor.”
“Literally, we could talk about sex all day long,” Shepherd commented. “She had advice for days.”
Following her mentor’s passing, Shepherd paid tribute to Walters via Instagram.
“Barbara gave me a chance to grow. She encouraged me (no… she TOLD me) to speak up or be left behind,” she wrote. “She told me to never take No for an answer. Barbara constantly loved on my son Jeffrey (kids were not allowed in her dressing room, but Jeffrey was always welcome & he made her smile).”
“Thank you Barbara for giving a shy girl who didn’t like to debate a seven year chance of a lifetime,” Shepherd’s post continued. “You believing in me has changed my life. Thank you for allowing me to find my voice and encouraging me to fly.”
