Though born in Boston, Barbara Walters spent parts of her childhood and high school years in Miami Beach, where her father, Lou Walters, operated nightclubs, per the Miami Herald. After college, she got a job at a local New York City TV station. In 1955, while visiting her parents, she happened to meet a casual friend at the airport. Bob Katz was a Navy veteran and successful businessman whose family ran a children's hat company.
After a whirlwind romance, they married, but Walters regretted the decision even before saying her vows. Finding her fiancé boring and feeling boxed in, she tried to persuade her father to call off the wedding, as she recalled in her memoir, "Audition". But Lou talked her down, pointing out that he'd already paid for a fancy Plaza Hotel reception. "My heart never felt so heavy," she wrote.
The marriage proved to be just as disastrous as Walters feared. The couple had little in common, she recalled in her book, and she still had hopes for an entertainment career. She and Katz had no children together and divorced in 1957. Four years later, Walters finally got her break as a writer on NBC's "Today" show, which led to her hosting spot. No reports are available on Katz's life after the divorce.
