Barbara Walters: Chickenpox Follows Fall at Inaugural Party

Veteran Journalist Barbara Walters is recovering from the chickenpox, after taking a spill last week and cutting her forehead at an inauguration event, her co-host Whoopi Goldberg said Monday on "The View" talk show.

"You all know that she fell and cut her head 10 days ago and then was running a temperature," Goldberg said on the show. "But it turns out it is all the result of a delayed childhood. Barbara has the chickenpox."

Goldberg also said Walters never had the illness as a child.

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Walters, 83, is recovering in a New York hospital and is not receiving visitors, Reuters reported.

Walters was initially admitted to a Washington hospital after falling on a step and cutting her forehead at the residence of the British ambassador to the United States while celebrating President Barack Obama's second-term inauguration last Monday. She was then transferred to a New York hospital last week and is expected to be discharged soon, according to Reuters.

Though Goldberg made light of Walters' plight on the air, the illness, which is associated with children, can be serious for adults and the elderly, especially when it's accompanied by more severe itching from hundreds of blisters, according to Reuters.

For adults, symptoms like headaches, fever, and chills can sometimes lead to pneumonia, if the illness is not properly treated or if the patient has a compromised immune system.

Walters is a veteran broadcast journalist, author and co-creator of ABC's "The View" daytime talk show. She got her start as the longtime host of NBC's "Today" show, before moving on to anchor jobs at "20/20" and "ABC Evening News." She has interviewed a range of politicians, celebrities and personalities including Michael Jackson, Monica Lewinsky, Fidel Castro, and Vladimir Putin.