Sage Steele claims The View co-host Barbara Walters 'elbowed' and 'pushed' her backstage
Barbara Walters always fought for the best story — sometimes physically, according to fellow broadcaster Sage Steele.
In an interview with Megyn Kelly that aired Thursday, Steele recalled an incident in which the late journalist allegedly threw some elbows at her backstage on The View.
"She just started to back up towards me, and looked at me, and got close, and elbowed me, and it pushed me back into the wall and the trash can," Steele, who served as a guest co-host of The View for five episodes in 2014, alleged. "I was like 'What did this mmmm just do to me? This 140-year-old woman just tried to, like, tackle me! What is happening right now?"
Later in the segment, Steele stated that Whoopi Goldberg and some of the show's producers witnessed the alleged altercation. "Whoopi saw it, and she was like 'come here,'" Steele recalled. "And she was great, and she pulled me aside in her little area, and she was like 'Don't you let her do it.'"
Lou Rocco/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images; Donna Svennevik/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images Sage Steele and Barbara Walters
Steele said she was stunned by the entire episode. She remembered thinking, "Am I in a movie right now? A legend…one of the legends in this industry just tried to beat me up!" she told Kelly.
Representatives for The View and Goldberg did not immediately respond to EW's request for comment.
This isn't the first claim of Walters' physical aggression. When recalling fond memories of the late broadcaster after she died last year at age 93, former The View co-host Lisa Ling said, "We all have these stories of when she would kick us under the table…if we said something we shouldn't say…but I would wear those bruises like badges of honor."
Earlier this week, Steele officially ended her tenure at ESPN after settling a lawsuit against the network, per CNN. The broadcaster had worked there since 2007.
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