ABC forced an ailing Barbara Walters to quit “The View” in 2014, according to former co-host Lisa Ling.<br /><br />In a recent interview, Ling recalled a conversation she had with Walters on the late broadcast journalist’s last day on the talk show.<br /><br />“‘Barbara, in a couple of months, are you going to be lounging in a hammock in Tahiti?’” Ling said she asked Walters while they were off the air.<br /><br />“And [Walters] just leaned over and whispered, ‘They’re making me quit,’” the CNN host claimed to the Cut in a story published March 13.<br />After starting her legendary career at NBC, Walters joined ABC in the 1970s and created “The View” in 1997. She co-hosted the roundtable show for 17 seasons and remained an executive producer until her death last year.<br /><br />“I do not want to appear on another program or climb another mountain,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 2013 before retiring. “I want to instead sit on a sunny field and admire the very gifted women — and OK, some men too — who will be taking my place.
