Sherri Shepherd visited WWHL and again told the story about Barbara Walters (who we lost in 2022) hooking up with Richard Pryor, this time admitting she thought she would have been fired.
According to Page Six the “Sherri” host told “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen” viewers Wednesday about spilling the beans to Joy Behar years ago and urging her co-host to keep quiet.
“As soon as Barbara walked in the next day, Joy goes, ‘Oh! You’re schlepping Richard Pryor,’” Shepherd, 56, recalled. “And I was like, I just got the job. Like, I’m gonna get fired.”
Although Behar, 81, “never ratted” Shepherd out when Walters asked “who told,” Shepherd “still [doesn’t] tell [Behar] nothing.”
The “30 Rock” alum first heard the rumor about Pryor and Walters, who died in 2005 and 2022, respectively, from comedian Paul Mooney.
“[Walters] did not tell me,” Shepherd clarified. “Late Paul Mooney, we were talking, and he said … he walked in or peeked through the door and … Richard Pryor and Barbara Walters were intimate.”
The actress rehashed the story on her eponymous talk show earlier this month while chatting with Behar about their time together on “The View” from 2007 to 2013.
Behar said that Walters “liked a brother,” also mentioning her affair with former Massachusetts Sen. Edward Brooke and claiming she cozied up to former Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Walters was married four times over the years to Robert Henry Katz, Lee Guber and Merv Adelson, the latter of whom she wed twice.
After the legendary journalist died last year at age 93, Shepherd gushed about her late co-host’s “bawdy sense of humor” to E! News.
“Literally, we could talk about sex all day long,” Shepherd said in January. “She had advice for days.”
Star Jones, Meghan McCain and more “View” personalities shared touching tributes to Walters after she died, with Shepherd honoring the “teacher, mother [and] friend” via Instagram.
“Thank you Barbara for giving a shy girl who didn’t like to debate a seven year chance of a lifetime,” she gushed at the time.
“You believing in me has changed my life,” Shepherd continued. “Thank you for allowing me to find my voice and encouraging me to fly.”