刚刚93岁去世的著名媒体人芭芭拉华特斯承认在70年代与参议员布鲁克有一段情。布鲁克是谁呢？
作为持自由派立场的共和党候选人，布鲁克1966年赢得马萨诸塞州的参议员席位，随后于1972年连任。他是20世纪美国仅有的两位黑人参议员之一，也是美国南北内战结束后的第一位，当时的参议员由州议会任命而非民选。在布鲁克以后，仅有奥巴马于2004年进入联邦参议院。
布鲁克被看作是一位中立派。1974年当水门事件引发美国全国关注的时候，他是首批要求尼克松总统辞职的议员之一。他也因为对民权的关注而反对尼克松提名的两位最高法院大法官人选。布鲁克还被看作是一位共识的构筑者，他支持公平住房立法，也支持改善与中国的关系。1978年，他在争取第三任期的选举中失利。随后，布鲁克离婚纷争中的细节引起了全国性媒体的关注，他被迫承认在法庭作证时曾经有过不实的陈述。
2015年，布鲁克于佛罗里达州的家中去世，享年95岁。奥巴马总统在一份声明中称赞布鲁克“为公众服务的卓越人生”，他也对布鲁克务实的立法方式表示敬意。奥巴马说，布鲁克站在“民权和经济平等斗争的最前沿。”
It’s kiss-and-tell time for Barbara Walters: She had an affair with U.S. Sen. Edward Brooke in the 1970s, the veteran journalist revealed during an interview with Oprah Winfrey.
After three decades of silence, Walters, 78, is speaking out about her multi-year relationship. According to transcripts from the show obtained by the Associated Press, the View host called Brooke “exciting” and “brilliant” – and tells Winfrey, “I was certainly infatuated … It was exciting times in Washington.”
Walters never talked about her relationship for fear that it would damage her career. Talking to Winfrey, she recounts a phone call with a friend who warned her, “This is going to come out. This is going to ruin your career … This is going to ruin him. You’ve got to break this off.'”
Brooke, a moderate Republican from Massachusetts, was elected to the Senate in 1966. At the time, Walters, who was divorced twice, was gaining prominence as a cohost of the Today show on NBC. According to the AP, Walters’s affair with Brooke ended before the senator lost his bid for a third term in 1978.
Brooke was later divorced but has subsequently remarried.
On the Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss her memoir Audition, an emotional Walters also opened up about her late sister, Jackie, who died of ovarian cancer in 1985.