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Walters: Jones going through 'difficult time'

1:12 AM EDT, May 10, 2008

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WASHINGTON - Barbara Walters says she refuses to engage in a debate with Star Jones, who accused her of revealing a past affair with a senator just to sell books. Walters said despite the public rift, she prefers to hold onto the good times the former co-hosts shared on "The View."

"Star is going through a very difficult time right now, and I'm going to have very happy memories of how wonderful she was on the program," Walters told AP Radio on Friday. "I don't want to add to her difficulties."

Jones is going through a divorce from banker Al Reynolds, whom she married in 2004.

Jones lashed out at Walters after the veteran journalist wrote in her autobiography "Audition" that the women of "The View" were forced to cover up Jones' gastric bypass surgery as she swiftly lost weight ahead of her wedding. Jones maintained at the time that she was eating less and doing Pilates.

"We lied for Star," Walters told AP Radio. "She was our colleague. She didn't want to discuss it, we didn't force her to. Was that a mistake? I don't know. ... It was Star's decision."

Earlier this week, Jones criticized her former boss for writing about her, and for including revelations of an affiar with former U.S. Senator Edward Brooke in the 1970s.

"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," Jones told Us Weekly magazine.

Walters said her intention was to give the book historical perspective.

"I put it in to show in great part how race relations have changed," Walters said. "This was 30 years ago, it was an African-American prominent man. And it would've desroyed his career, and mine. Today it would have almost no impact."

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