Walters on the Side

Barbara Walters is many things. The journalist who perfected the soft-focus interview. A woman with a mild speech impediment. She’s also partially responsible for inflicting Elisabeth Hasselbeck upon the world, which we’re still upset about.

But we didn’t think she ever played the role of “other woman.” Yet Walters confessed to shagging former Massachusetts Sen. Edward Brooke while he was in office during the 1970s on an episode of Oprah that will air Tuesday.

Babs, you saucy minx.

Winfrey asks Walters if she was in love.

“I was certainly — I don’t know — I was certainly infatuated.”

“Infatuated.”

“I was certainly involved,” Walters says. “He was exciting. He was brilliant. It was exciting times in Washington.”

Aww. Trysts always sound so romantic 30 years after the fact.