Barbara Walters’ older sister was named Jacqueline (often called Jackie), and she died in 1985 from ovarian cancer. Walters wrote and spoke over the years about how Jackie had a lifelong mental disability (described in older sources with now-outdated language), which deeply shaped both of their lives.

Quick Scoop: What Happened To Her Sister?

  • Barbara Walters’ sister Jackie was three‑and‑a‑half years older than her and had a developmental disability from birth.
  • The family rarely discussed Jackie’s condition publicly, largely out of fear of stigma in that era.
  • Walters has said her childhood felt “lonely” and “isolated” because of how her sister was treated and protected from others.
  • Jackie lived a comparatively private life outside the spotlight, while Barbara became a public figure.
  • Jackie died in 1985 from ovarian cancer.

“It was a lonely, isolated upbringing,” Walters later recalled when talking about growing up with her disabled sister in a far less understanding time.

Family Dynamic And Emotional Impact

Walters described her relationship with Jackie as loving but emotionally complicated. She often felt responsible for her sister’s future, worrying from a young age that she might one day need to financially support Jackie if the family fell on hard times. At the same time, she admitted feeling constrained by the situation: she said she could not have birthday parties or join activities like the Girl Scouts because her sister could not participate, which fed a sense that her own life was never “normal.”

These early pressures helped drive Walters’ intense work ethic and ambition. She linked her drive to succeed in television to the idea that she might have to “take care” of her family, including Jackie, if things went wrong. Even after Jackie’s death, Walters said she “agonized” over their relationship and whether she had done enough or been a good enough sister, despite believing Jackie always loved her.

Public Mentions And Later Reflections

Most detailed information about Jackie comes from Walters’ memoir “Audition” and interviews she gave while promoting it in the late 2000s. In those accounts, she:

  • Emphasized how little people then understood developmental disabilities.
  • Explained that her parents tried to shield Jackie from cruelty, which meant keeping her somewhat apart from the outside world.
  • Connected that family secrecy and isolation to her own lifelong feelings of insecurity and need for achievement.

Because Jackie herself stayed out of the public eye and died decades before Barbara Walters, there is no “latest news” about her in the current sense; what circulates online now are retrospectives on Walters’ life that briefly recount Jackie’s story and its effect on Barbara’s career and personality.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.