NEW YORK (AP) — Barbara Walters has launched what will be a TV equivalent of a victory lap. She is retiring from being on the air. She confirmed that she would be leaving and set the date for sometime next summer.

Walters is 83 — and shed tears when she made the announcement on “The View.” Walters has had some health issues this year, including developing chicken pox and being hospitalized after taking a fall while leaving a pre-inaugural party in Washington.

She says, however, she is in perfect health and isn’t being pushed out. As she put it: “I want to leave while people are still saying, ‘why is she leaving?’ instead of ‘why doesn’t she leave?”