E! News has confirmed that the veteran newswoman will make her official retirement announcement during tomorrow's episode of The View.
"I am very happy with my decision and look forward to a wonderful and special year ahead both on ‘The View' and with ABC News," she told ABC News. "I created ‘The View' and am delighted it will last beyond my leaving it."
She continues to say, "I do not want to appear on another program or climb another mountain. I want instead to sit on a sunny field and admire the very gifted women—and OK, some men too—who will be taking my place."
ABC News President Ben Sherwood says, "There's only one Barbara Walters, and we look forward to making her final year on television as remarkable, path-breaking and news-making as Barbara herself. Barbara will always have a home at ABC News and we look forward to a year befitting her brilliant career, filled with exclusive interviews, great adventures and indelible memories."
After word got out that Walters was planning to retire in May of 2014, rumors began swirling that she would let everyone know about her career plans on the show in early April.
"Here I am, and I have no announcement to make," she said. "But I do want to say this: If and when I might have an announcement to make, I will do it in this program, I promise, and the paparazzi guys, you will be the last to know."
The 83-year-old has spent 50 years in the news business, after first starting her career in magazine journalism, and then going to work for NBC's Today in 1961 as a writer-researcher, only to ultimately become the show's first female cohost in 1974.
And the rest—as they say—is history.
