Barbara Walters ‘Happy’ With Retirement Decision; Gearing Up To Move Beyond The Next ‘Get’

Barbara Walters announced she will retire next year, and she’s glad she’s going out before overstaying her welcome.

“I feel happy that I made the decision while people were still saying, ‘Why are you leaving?’ instead of ‘Aren’t you going to leave?’” Barbara told Access Hollywood on Monday morning.

The veteran television news journalist said that although she has announced her retirement, she still has another season to go with her show, “The View,” and with ABC’s news division.

“I will be on the air on ‘The View’ for another year and for ABC News and I’m not just walking into the sunset. If there’s a special election, if there’s a special funeral [I will be a part of it], but I will not be on, on a regular basis and that’s what makes the difference,” she said. “I will not have deadlines and I will not have to go after the next ‘get.’ That’s what I look forward to. Somebody will say, ‘Did you get so and so?’… and I will think, ‘I don’t have to.’”

Barbara admitted she hasn’t yet come up with a plan for what she’ll do when retirement comes in Summer 2014.

“There always is that, ‘What’s next?’ And, I don’t know — maybe just sleeping late, maybe just having lunch with friends. That doesn’t sound bad,” she said. “Maybe visiting a country and maybe staying more than one day.”

Barbara knows that when she does leave, she has left a big impact on women in television news.

“If I have a legacy it is that there are so many wonderful women on television,” she said. “There were not when I began. If I paved the way at all, that’s what’s going to last, not me, not the interview that I did, but the women in the future who are doing great things. That gives me pride, it really does. I’ve accomplished something, I’ve left something important.”