Walters' Memoirs Spawns Libel Suit from Daughter's Alleged Former Lover

Cover of Audition: A MemoirIn Shay v. Walters (Case No. 1:2011-cv-10932) filed in May in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, a passage in Barbara Walters' 2008 autobiography, Audition: A Memoir, has sparked a libel suit from a woman who alleges she engaged in a lesbian relationship decades ago with Walters' adopted daughter Jackie Guber.

As reported by The Hollywood Reporter's  THR, Esq. legal blog, Judge George A. O'Toole will preside over the case in which the plaintiff, Nancy Shay, claims she is the first-name only "Nancy" that Walters wrote about in her 579-page tome. Shay's complaint cites a passage in which Walters recounts a 1983 incident involving Guber and "Nancy," whom Walters describes as a teen "whom the school kicked out midterm for bad behavior," in which the two teenagers were "found in the nearby town, high on God-knows what."

Shay alleges she was defamed by Walters' recollection, and claims Walters pressured the school to expel her because she disapproved of an alleged consensual sexual relationship between Shay and Guber. Walters' attorneys have moved to dismiss the suit, alleging that it violates their client's First Amendment rights and asserts time-barred claims.