Brutal Rumors About Diane Sawyer That Put A Stain On Her Reputation

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"Whatever happened to Diane Sawyer?" is a question that occasionally pops into people's minds. After all, the legendary news anchor was a prominent presence on TV for several decades, predominantly thanks to her unflinchingly honest interviews where Sawyer dug deep into celebrities to get the answers that viewers desperately wanted. Although she was applauded for her persistence and candor at the time, many people later criticized Sawyer for being far too harsh with her subjects. 

While she's undoubtedly a polarizing figure, it would be unfair to claim that her journalistic career has been anything short of incredibly impressive. Sawyer got her start on television as a Louisville weather reporter for WLKY. In a 1981 chat with the New York Times, she shared that she got a job interview at the White House when she was 24 because of her father's connections and was eventually hired as a press aide under Richard Nixon's administration. Although news networks started eyeing her for a job after Nixon's presidency met its controversial end, Sawyer stuck by his side. 

In fact, she even helped the disgraced politician write his memoirs until 1978, when the ambitious young woman finally decided to join CBS News as a general assignment reporter. Within just a couple of years, she managed to make history by becoming the first female news anchor to join "60 Minutes." One of the richest news anchors in the U.S. was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Game in 1997 and received several other prominent recognitions throughout her career. However, during Sawyer's climb to the top, she reportedly made a few enemies amongst her coworkers.

In "60 Minutes" producer Ira Rosen's 2021 book "Ticking Clock: Behind the Scenes at 60 Minutes," the author posited that Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer were embroiled in a not-so-secret feud behind the scenes. According to the Emmy winner, although the two news anchors made jokes about their issues at the office, they were genuinely at odds. Rosen recalled a chat with Sawyer about their feud: "Diane looked at me and said, 'I hate that woman. Don't believe a word she says. She knifes me any chance she gets.'" Their discord was obvious on their co-anchored show "20/20" because of how petty they were. 

Each news anchor apparently tried to get more words than the other, and the two women also frequently bickered over who would get the first and last word of each episode. In Susan Page's 2024 biography, "The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters," she confirmed that the pair were at odds essentially from the moment Sawyer joined ABC because Walters took issue with the fact that someone with her experience had to share the screen with a relative newcomer. 

Although Walters agreed to work with Sawyer when Roone Arledge initially called her, she changed her mind shortly afterward, wondering aloud, "How is someone of my stature supposed to divide up things with her?" Walters eventually hopped onboard after some reassurance, but she made her disdain for her co-anchor clear by trying to interview the very first guest that Sawyer was supposed to chat with.

In journalist Sheila Weller's 2014 book "The News Sorority," she claimed that Katie Couric wasn't too pleased upon learning that her fellow journalist Diane Sawyer had managed to snag an interview with a 57-year-old woman who had given birth to twins because she wanted the scoop instead. Couric expressed her annoyance by quipping, "I wonder who she blew this time to get it." In Couric's own 2021 memoir "Going There," she insisted that she was kidding. Couric also clarified, "Neither of us ever resorted to actual fellatio to land an interview but we both engaged in the metaphoric kind — flattering gatekeepers, family members, and whoever else stood in the way of a big get." 

Elsewhere in the book, the veteran news anchor openly shared that she had developed a bit of a rivalry with Sawyer because Couric wanted to outdo her in the morning news section. The beloved TV personality didn't even hesitate to admit that she was jealous of Sawyer since she perceived her to have the wealth and height that Couric didn't. 

Additionally, the former CBS anchor acknowledged that they greatly irritated each other during their rivalry, and she got a lot of satisfaction out of knowing that she was affecting Sawyer. At the end of the day, though, Sawyer may not have been the only one annoyed by her since Couric's former nanny also came out swinging over her bombshell book.

In 2009, Charles Gibson shared a heartfelt message to announce that his time at ABC News had sadly come to an end after 35 years. Although he gushed about the news network and its employees in his retirement email, Gibson notably made no mention of Diane Sawyer, who was slated to be his successor on "World News." Meanwhile, in her own statement, she enthused about what an honor it was to fill Gibson's shoes. Naturally, the supposed snub led people to question if there was a feud brewing between them.

A Page Six source confirmed that that was indeed the case, dishing, "Charlie has always given Diane the stink eye. He bad-mouths her openly and often." Further, the insider professed that Gibson was taken aback by the choice of successor since he believed that George Stephanopoulos should have taken over the reins and had made his preferences clear to ABC News president David Westin. According to the source, Gibson's annoyance only intensified after they publicly announced that Sawyer would be taking over, since it took attention away from his retirement news. 

However, an ABC executive shot down rumors of a feud, clarifying that they actually got along swimmingly. Gibson himself brushed off the feud chatter too, labeling it "silly" to Page Six, and noting, "We worked together for over seven years, side-by-side. [...] We laughed together, cried together (particularly during the time after 9/11), and developed a strong mutual bond." Despite everything, it's still pretty strange that Gibson opted not to even acknowledge his successor in his retirement statement.

Before Diane Sawyer officially made her way to broadcast television, she served as a press aide for Richard Nixon's administration from 1970 to 1974. Speaking to Parade in 2010, the veteran journalist reflected on that exciting time in her life. "I was able to listen because no one was really interested in what I had to say," she revealed. "So to be in the White House in that time and learning about human nature as you could when you weren't in the center of the action was such an education."
However, having that kind of access at that moment in time obviously wasn't without its drawbacks. 

In Sawyer's case, it led her to be inadvertently dragged into the Watergate scandal. When one of Nixon's close companions, Rabbi Baruch Korff, was on his deathbed, he proclaimed that Sawyer was the famed Deep Throat, who blew the lid off the scandal to Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward. While Korff confessed that he didn't have any solid evidence, he rationalized that "everything points to her," per The Independent. 

However, Woodward himself dispelled this notion by pointing out that it was common knowledge that the famed informant was a man. Further, Sawyer's position as an aide wouldn't provide her with enough access to know about the scandal in the first place. Even the news anchor herself laughed off the claim during an interview with Michael Eisner. Although we learned that FBI agent Mark Felt was the informant in 2005, the rumor still made people look at Sawyer with suspicion. 

Critics on X, formerly known as Twitter, have long accused Diane Sawyer of being far too hard on famous women in her interviews — especially Sawyer's resurfaced 2003 interview with Britney Spears, which really upset her fans. The interviewer infamously brought the "Toxic" hitmaker to tears by questioning how she was handling the negative press resulting from her high-profile split from Justin Timberlake. However, that emotional reaction didn't stop Sawyer from taking on a more sympathetic tone towards the "Mirrors" singer while discussing his claims about Spears' infidelity and how it left him brokenhearted. Although the "Boys" hitmaker didn't offer a definitive answer to the rumors, urging her interviewer to move on to a different topic, Sawyer continued to press Spears for answers. 

Years later, Redditors were baffled as to why she had been so mean to the pop star and accused her of being misogynistic. Sawyer's 2002 ABC News chat with Whitney Houston also didn't paint her in the best light either. The legendary news anchor started out the conversation by presenting the singer with a photo of her performing and questioning whether her weight loss was due to an eating disorder or excessive drug use. 

Although Houston explained that the stress of her demanding job prevented her from eating sometimes, Sawyer wouldn't let it go, and even read out a headline claiming that she was using crack cocaine. Houston gave an iconic answer in response, reasoning, "Crack is cheap. I make too much money to ever smoke crack." She continued, "Let's get that straight. Okay? We don't do crack. We don't do that. Crack is whack."