ET spoke with Barbara Walters today at a book signing in Washington, D.C. where the legendary journalist responded to Star Jones‘ statement about Walters’ new memoir, Audition, in an interview to air tonight, May 8th.

Walters told ET, “I didn’t see the statement. I have very good memories of Star and I’d like to keep it that way.”
Jones released the following statement yesterday, “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.”

In the book, Walters claims Jones forced her to lie about her gastric bypass surgery on “The View.” Walters also reveals that she had an affair with then-married Senator Edward Brooke during the 1970s.

ET