Barbara Walters was one of the most prosperous journalists in the world, known to interview presidents, celebrities and world leaders.

However, behind his impressive career was a personal struggle that has never made the headlines in the same way.

Before the publication of a documentary telling the story of Walters, a close friend opened on the challenges encountered by the icon, revealing his greatest regret.

It turns out that the biggest sorrow in Walters was not his career, but his difficult relationship with his adopted daughter, Jackie.

Walters had a tumultuous relationship with his adopted daughter, Jackie.

For years, the personality of the radio aspired to a nearby mother-daughter link, but unfortunately, I have never experienced it.

According to some information, Walters will look at photos of his friends with their children and grandchildren, wishing to be able to relate to their joy.

Until Its passage in 2022The icon lived with regret in the state of his relationship with Jackie.

Recently, the friend of Walters and former correspondent of NBC, Cynthia McFadden, spoke exclusively to PEOPLE On the journalist’s reflections on his relationship with Jackie.

She said to the point of sale that Walters had had trouble with the emotional vacuum left by their complicated relationship.

“She said to everyone:” I admire your relationship with your children so much. She was very late in her family life.

Walters’ decision to adopt Jackie came from his inability to give birth. The television star was married to her second husband, Lee Guber, at the time and wishing to have a child after having undergone three false layers.

In 1968, the longtime friend of Walters, Roy Cohn, found a little girl to adopt, and they were on the moon.

While adoption was undoubtedly a crucial opportunity for the couple, Walters wanted little or no advertising.

“I really didn’t want the biological mother to know that Jackie had been adopted by us. I just continued to work,” she said NBC News in 2002.

As Jackie was adopted, the 93 -year -old had just joined ABC “Today”. Consequently, juggle maternity and so demanding career have become very tasks for Walters.

“I never thought about it. I didn’t think, “Can I juggle both?” I should probably have had, ”she told the point of sale.

However, whatever her busy schedule, Barbara Walters made sure that her daughter was not completely devoid of attention.

However, Jackie had a hard time adapting to her mother’s world as they get older. At one point, she rebelled, losing concentration and becoming a drug addict.

According to McFadden, Walters had a broken heart and could not relate to his daughter, who was not as focused on the career as they are.

“She couldn’t understand someone like Jackie, who was not running at the top,” she said PEOPLE.

“They were so arguably and physically binding,” she continued. “It was a struggle. It doesn’t mean that they didn’t like each other, but that was not what she hoped, and probably not what Jackie had hoped either.”

In addition to the lack of concentration and consumption of Jackie’s drugs, it has also become a leak.

In 1985, Barbara Walters received a call according to which her daughter had disappeared, two weeks after having registered him in a program of high school students at the Parsons School of Design in Los Angeles.

According to his biography “The Rule Breaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters”, written by Susan Page, Jackie fled with a friend and remained missing for four days.

Fortunately, Walters learned that her daughter was in New Mexico.