For about six decades, the veteran broadcast news journalist Barbara Walters held sway across several media platforms in the USA. She became extremely influential to the point of being named on TV Guide’s list of 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time. Now over 90 years old, retired and invisible to the public and the media, Barbara’s life still reverberates in the things she did and the lives she touched in her heyday. One such life is her adoptive daughter Jacqueline Dena Guber who is the subject of this piece.
With her second husband Lee Guber, Barbara adopted Jacqueline in 1968 almost as soon as she was born. However, with time, it appeared that the gene in Jacqueline could not stand the spotlight surrounding both of her adoptive parents. Given that, she became rebellious and did everything to dissociate from their fame. Jacqueline pursued a reckless life of drugs and partying. With time, however, her life bounced back and she became quite productive, contributing a lot to society and humanity at large. In all, the story of Jacqueline Dena Guber is an interesting tale to tell.
Insights on Jacqueline Dena Guber’s Troubled Childhood
Jacqueline Dena Guber was named Jacqueline Danforth when she was born on the 14th of June 1968 in the United States. As already stated, shortly after she was born, she was given up for adoption to Barbara Walters and her then-husband Lee Guber, two popular figures in the American media and entertainment landscape. At the time, Lee already had two children from his previous marriage while Barbara was without a child and had suffered through several miscarriages.
Jacqueline was raised by her adoptive parents who brought her up as if she was their flesh and blood. However, despite the love and attention that Jacqueline was showered with, the adoption combined with teenage angst left her feeling like she didn’t belong in the family. So, she turned to a life of partying. By the time she was 13, she had a habit of wearing mini skirts and skimpy outfits and sneaking out of her parent’s home to explore the nightlife in New York City.
One of Jacqueline’s favorite spots was Studio 54, a notorious nightclub where she was introduced to drugs like methamphetamines and marijuana. She went on to try several other drugs and became hooked on the substances. At 15, feeling like she couldn’t take the pressure of being the child of famous parents anymore, Jacqueline ran away from home. Her mother spent a month looking for her with no luck, but she refrained from filing a missing person report with the police because she knew that if the media found out what was going on, it would likely make things worse for her daughter.
How She Overcame Her Addiction to Drugs
Several weeks later, Jacqueline Dena Guber hitched a ride with a man who contacted Barbara to tell her the whereabouts of her daughter. Barbara immediately sent for her to get picked up and taken to a rehab facility in Idaho. While there, Jacqueline was able to overcome her addiction and finish high school. She left the intervention program three years after she arrived and moved to Oregon to be as far away from her mother’s fame as possible.
Now a reformed drug addict, she decided to use her experience to inspire and help other young women who were battling with substance abuse. Jacqueline founded New Horizons, an intervention program that used outdoor living and clinical therapy to treat women with addiction issues. After many successful years, the program shut down operations in 2008.
While many people can give up anything to trend on social media or in the traditional media, Jacqueline Dena Guber has fought all her life to stay away from the spotlight that came with her association to her splendidly famous adoptive mom. Concerns about her privacy may be responsible for this attitude of hers. For instance, in 2014, Jacqueline was arrested in Florida for driving under the influence, and she was later released after posting a $1000 bail. It made news headlines across the country.
To avoid the invasion of her space, Jacqueline Dena Guber had to come up with ways to go about her life like a commoner. One of the things she did was to change her name when she turned 18, adopting her father’s last name instead of her mother’s because he was less famous and Jacqueline didn’t want to be linked to her mother’s fame.
Jacqueline Has Been Married Twice
It is quite an irony that what some people seek with all their lives, other people avoid it with all their might. Ever since she was a little girl, Jacqueline Dena Guber spent her life trying to avoid the media which she felt were constantly watching her because of her mother’s extraordinary fame. She found the situation to be suffocating so she always did all she could to stay away from the spotlight. As a result, not much is known about her love life.
However, we know she was once married to a man named Mark Danforth at some point in her life. This is the reason she is also known as Jacqueline Danforth in the media. When her marriage with Mark crashed, she got married to another man named Scott Pontius in 1995. It was in a private ceremony that was only attended by friends and family. The marriage ended peacefully 10 years later as Jacqueline and her husband decided to go their separate ways. Till today, no one seems to know why the marriage ended.
2005 is a long time off. As such, it is expected that Jacqueline Dena Guber must have found love again since then. But has she? That’s a tough one. Every effort we’ve made to find out if she is seeing someone has failed woefully. Of course, we’ve told you that she has since learned to keep her private life private.
However, as to whether she is married, we learned that she is single. But, at some point, she dated a man named Dennis Pinkham. Some sources have even reported that she got married to Dennis too.
