Barbara Walters Admits to Interracial Affair with Former U.S. Senator Edward Brooke

Barbara Walters, in an appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” revealed that she had had an affair with former U.S. Senator Edward Brooke, the first African American to be elected to the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction and the Barack Obama of his day. Walters is out in the talk show circuit thumping the tub for her new memoir, Audition, and the parallels between Brooke and Obama likely is one reason she is highlighting her relationship with the former Republican Senator, which took place over 30 years ago.

Walters claims she broke off her affair with Brooke, who was married, as a public revelation of the affair could have scuttled both of their careers due to the mores of the times. Indeed, Brooke’s political career did go into eclipse after their affair ended, when it was revealed that he had lied about his finances during a divorce from his first wife. The resulting financial scandal contributed to his defeat in his 1978 bid for a third term, when he was beaten by Democratic Congressman Paul Tsongas.

Edward W. Brooke III was elected to the Senate in 1966, after serving as the Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He had capitalized on the publicity of being the man who managed to incarcerate The Boston Strangler, a notorious serial killer in a time when such phenomena were rare. The Republican Brooke was an African American and an Episcopalian in a state dominated by white ethnic Democrats who were mostly Roman Catholics. He was reelected in 1972, just before the integration of the Boston school-system via the vehicle of court-ordered busing soured race relations in Massachusetts.

At one time, Brooke was considered to be of Presidential timber, and harbored ambitions for the White House. When Barbara Walters met him and commenced their long-term affair in the early 1970s, Brooke was at the height of his power. Walters told Oprah Winfrey that Brooke was “exciting” and “brilliant.” While she did not admit to being in love with the handsome Senator, she did say she was “infatuated.”

Washington, D.C. tax attorney Timothy D. Naegele, who served as Brooke’s chief of staff from 1971 to 1973, told the Boston Globe that he did have personal knowledge of the affair between his former boss and Walters, but he admitted that he had heard of it. He also described the former Senator as a ladies’ man.

“He, for lack of a better expression, liked women,” Naegele said.

Brooke’s marriage to his first wife, the former Remigia Ferrari-Scacco, now deceased, had broken down by the time he met Walters. Married in 1947, the couple eventually went through an acrimonious divorce in 1978. Before his separation from his wife, the unhappily married Brooke was a fixture on the District party circuit, where he met Walters in 1973.

Walters, who had established herself on “The Today Show,” was on her way to becoming the first anchor of a network newscast. The 78-year-old Walters was born in Boston, Massachusetts, where he father owned and managed nightclubs.

Brooke, who is now 88, published his own memoir, Bridging the Divide, in 2007. In his book, Brooke admitted to being unfaithful to his first wife, whom he had met while serving in Italy in the U.S. Army, but he did not mention Walters. Brooke remarried in 1979, and he and his second wife, the former Anne Fleming, had a child and are still together. In 2004, he was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush for his work on low-income housing and cancer-awareness. Brooke is a survivor of breast cancer, which is rare in men.

In the 1970s, the revelation of an extramarital affair, even between two mature adults of equal social status, could have scuttled a political career. Twenty years later, a sitting President managed to weather a far worse sin, the sexual exploitation of a woman young enough to be his daughter, and exited office with the highest approval ratings of any President in over 50 years. The revelation of the affair between Barbara Walters and Edward Brooke, 30 years after the fact, likely will help sell many copies of Walters’ memoir, which is likely why she “blew the whistle” on her relationship with Brooke. With the rise of the African American Senator Barack Obama as a major political force, the added spice of Walters having had an “interracial” affair — once strictly taboo in America — also likely will help sell her book.

For Edward Brooke, the publicity likely is not all that embarrassing at his age, since the affair happened before he had met the woman who is now his wife. It will also help rescue from obscurity the life of one of the country’s more remarkable politicians, the Barack Obama of his time, who has much to tell America about the convergence of race and politics, as detailed in his own memoir, Bridging the Divide.

Sources:

Associated Press, “Barbara Walters reveals past affair with US senator”

Boston Globe, “Journalist, Senator were an item; Barbara Walters reveals longtime affair with Edward Brooke”

Reference:

• Washignton Post: Ex-Sen. Brooke Discusses Memoir, Race in Politics www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/02/07/DI2007020701453.html