Greta Garbo is the clearest answer. In a 2014 interview about her career, Barbara Walters said she would have promised never to do another interview if she had been able to interview the famously reclusive actress. That remark makes Garbo the strongest match for the headline—but not the only person Walters said she wished she could interview.
Why Greta Garbo is the strongest answer
Asked about the interview she had missed, Walters singled out Garbo in TV Guide’s 2014 career interview: “I would have promised to never do another interview if I would have been able to interview [the notoriously reclusive] Greta Garbo.” Read the TV Guide interview.
Walters’s phrasing conveys how exceptional she considered the opportunity. It does not establish that she made a documented attempt to book Garbo, or that Garbo was the only person she ever hoped to interview. The source provides the wish and its context—Garbo’s reclusiveness—not a booking history.
Other people Walters said she wanted to interview
Queen Elizabeth and the Pope
Walters also spoke about wanting interviews with Queen Elizabeth and the Pope. In a 2011 conversation with Piers Morgan, she said, “I would like to interview the Pope. It would be wonderful to be able to interview the Queen of England. She’s never done interviews.” Read the CNN transcript. In a 2008 Larry King interview, she likewise said she had not been able to book the Queen and that the Pope had never been interviewed. Read the CNN transcript.
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Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Teresa Heinz Kerry
In 2004, Walters made two different kinds of remarks about possible interview subjects. She said, “I think we all wanted to interview Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis,” while acknowledging that Onassis had not given an interview. She then said she would like to talk with Teresa Heinz Kerry, whom she called interesting and brilliant. These comments identify other subjects of interest, but they do not rank either woman as Walters’s single most desired interview. Read the Larry King Live transcript.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to read the headline
The answer depends partly on how the question was put. Walters’s 2014 reflection gives the most direct, emphatic answer for a singular headline: Garbo. Her earlier comments name other people she had not interviewed or hoped to speak with, without presenting a definitive ranking. That distinction fits Walters’s broad approach to her work: a CNN retrospective quoted her saying there was “almost no interview that I wouldn’t do.” Read the CNN retrospective transcript.
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