Barbara’s back in ‘View’

By Frazier Moore / The Associated Press

Published: March 06. 2013 4:00AM PST

Walters

NEW YORK — Barbara Walters is back.

Sidelined for six weeks by chickenpox and a concussion, Walters returned to ABC’s “The View" on Monday.

She got a thunderous welcome from the studio audience and co-panelists Sherri Shepherd, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Joy Behar, as well as well-wishers Regis Philbin and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who stopped by.

“After a lot of scratching and rest, I am fine and I am healthy," the 83-year-old Walters declared.

Lifting her bangs, she pointed on her forehead to the only visible signs of her ordeal: A single chickenpox bump and a tiny scar from her fall.

She had chickenpox and a fever at the time but didn’t realize it. The likely cause? Hugging a well-known actor “who shall be nameless" earlier in January, she said. It turned out he had shingles. “If you have never had chickenpox" — and Walters never had — “you can get it from someone with shingles," she told viewers.

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