Barbara Walters is re-visiting childhood -- she has chickenpox.

Apparently she never had the disease when she was a kid, and has just gotten infected at age 83. Whoopi Goldberg made the announcement this morning (Monday) on The View, saying, "So now she's been told to rest, she's not allowed any visitors. and we're telling you, Barbara, no scratching. We love you. We miss you. We just don't want to hug you."

Some people have been calling it shingles because of Barbara's age, but that's not correct. Chickenpox and shingles come from the same virus, but chickenpox is the initial infection, and shingles is a flare-up that occurs usually decades after you had chickenpox.

Source: TMZ