Barbara Walters to retire next year

US TV veteran Barbara Walters is set to retire in May 2014 according to various media reports from America.

Walters, who is 83, has been a staple of American television for five decades. She rose to fame on NBC‘s long running breakfast show Today, which she became co-host in the early 1970s.

 

She was also the first female co-anchor on an evening network news programme for ABC News in the same decade.

Although a spokesman for The View, the daytime talk show which she created in 1997, has given no comment on the reports today.

Barbara was forced to pull out of ABC News’ Inauguration coverage in January following a fall at the home  the British Ambassador in Washington during a party.