Barbara Walters announced Monday on The View that she would be undergoing heart surgery later this week. Walters will be having a faulty heart valve replaced. The View host said she will be taking time off from the show to recover and expects to return in September.
“I have known of this condition for a while now and my doctors and I have decided that this is the best time to do the surgery,” Barbara Walters said on The View Monday.
ABC News president David Westin told network staff in an e-mail that although Walters would be having “serious surgery,” her condition is “not urgent; she is feeling great.”
“The recovery process can be anywhere from a month to three months,” Walters said. “I expect to be calling in from time to time… I love you all, and that’s my hot topic of the morning.”