*Turns out Barbara Walters' secret affair with a black senator isn't the only juicy part of her new book "Audition," and it wasn't the only bombshell from the project dropped during Tuesday's appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."
The veteran television journalist finally spoke out about what really happened during the final two years of Star Jones' tenure as co-host of the ABC morning show "The View."
Walters, 76, an executive producer and co-host of "The View," confirmed previous reports that viewers began to turn away from Jones after she got engaged to Al Reynolds and began using "View" airtime to promote her wedding vendors as part of a deal to use their various services for free.
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Star Jones Reynolds
As for Jones's sudden and dramatic weight loss, Walters told Oprah: "She decided to have a gastric bypass operation, but then she decided not to tell anybody. Then we had to lie on the set everyday because she said it was portion control and Pilates. Well, we knew it wasn't portion control and Pilates."
Winfrey agreed, stating sarcastically: "We in the audience go, that's some damn Pilates teacher!"
UPDATE: in an exclusive statement to UsMagazine.com, Star Jones is slamming Barbara Walters as an adulteress in the "sunset of her life." Her full statement:
"It is a sad day when an icon like Barbara Walters, in the sunset of her life, is reduced to publicly branding herself as an adulterer, humiliating an innocent family with accounts of her illicit affair and speaking negatively against me all for the sake of selling a book. It speaks to her true character."
Alrighty then. And what is Barbara's response to Star? None, at least according to her rep said in a statement to UsMagazine.com:
"I will not dignify this with a comment. Barbara's written words say it all!"