Corey Feldman says Barbara Walters clash on ‘The View’ was ‘like a knife in the heart’

Corey Feldman is still shocked by the interaction he had with the late Barbara Walters more than a decade ago.

“It was like a knife in the heart,” the former child star tells Entertainment Weekly when asked about an often-resurfaced clip from his 2013 appearance on The View in which the revered journalist accused him of “damaging an entire industry” by calling out child predators in Hollywood.

“It was shocking to me that somebody who I admired so much and I looked up to so much could be so deaf and so just completely wrong and off base,” he says during an interview about his recent exit from The Masked Singer.

The Goonies and Stand by Me star appeared on The View on Oct 29, 2013, to promote his memoir, Coreyography, which details the sexual abuse he and best friend Corey Haim (who died in 2010) experienced while working in the entertainment industry in their youth. During his interview segment, Feldman explains to the cohosts, “I’m saying that there are people that were people that did this to both me and Corey, that are still working, they’re still out there, and they’re some of the richest, most powerful people in this business. And they do not want me saying what I’m saying right now.”

“Are you saying that they’re pedophiles?” Walters asks, “and that they’re still in this business?” Feldman responds “yes” to each. He goes on to say he doesn’t want parents of child performers to go into the business “with naivete.” Walters replies, “You’re damaging an entire industry.”

Looking back on the exchange now, Feldman recalls, “It very much gave everybody, I think, the feeling that she was either part of it or covering up for it, which is shocking and scary.”

The actor says he never heard again from Walters, who died in 2022, about their exchange. “I never got an apology. The only apology I’ve ever gotten is from a few Twitter followers who’ve said, we all want to apologize on her behalf for the fact that she never acknowledged you or apologized.”

Feldman made a documentary about exposing sexual abuse in Hollywood, (My) Truth: The Rape of Two Coreys, which debuted in March 2020 during a troubled Los Angeles screening and was plagued by streaming issues for those attempting to watch at home. He blames hackers for stealing the film, the media for not widely acknowledging it, and the outbreak of Covid for the film fizzling out.

“I still am praying that one day my voice, Corey’s voice, all the voices of all the victims that I experienced and saw in my time as a child get their voices heard and get a chance to come forward and have a chance of justice,” he says.

But he does see positives in the success of Investigation Discovery’s docuseries, Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, which also discusses known pedophiles working at Nickelodeon, features actor Drake Bell detailing his own childhood abuse, and is now the subject of a lawsuit filed by former Nickelodeon producer and showrunner Dan Schneider.

“Honestly, nobody in Hollywood has really stood with me during this, and it’s been really rough, but you never know,” Feldman says, trying to maintain some hope for continuing to spotlight his cause. “Tides seem to be changing, and the tides seemed to be turning. And hopefully maybe one day somebody will care enough to help me get my story told properly.”

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