Sage Steele: ‘140-year-old’ Barbara Walters once ‘tried to beat me up!’

nypost.com:

former ESPN anchor who recently left the sports network after settling a lawsuit, claimed that she had a run-in with the late Barbara Walters backstage at “The View” in 2014.“It was Barbara, Whoopi [Goldberg], and myself in the dark green room off to the side,” Steele recalled on Thursday’s episode of “The Megyn Kelly Show.” “I was probably about four feet from the wall and the trash can, and Barbara was standing over here in front of me.

She just started to back up toward me and looked at me and got close and elbowed me, and it pushed me back into the wall and the trash can,” alleged Steele, 50, of the news icon, who died in December 2022 at age 93. “I was like, ‘What did [she] just do to me?

This 140-year-old woman just tried to, like, tackle me.’ “Some of the producers saw it. Whoopi saw it,” Steele continued. “And Whoopi was like, ‘Come here.’ She was great.

She pulled me aside in her little area and she’s like, ‘Don’t you let her do it.’ And I’m like, ‘Am I in a movie right now? One of the legends in this industry just tried to beat me up!’ ”When contacted by The Post, a representative for Walters’ estate said in a statement: “I find this impossible to believe and uncharacteristic of Barbara!”The Post also has contacted reps for Steele, Goldberg and “The View” for comment.