Born to a Jewish family in New York, New York, Barrett was diagnosed with a rare form of muscular dystrophy at age 9. When she was 13, she became the nationwide coordinator of singer Eddie Fisher's fan clubs. Her date for the high school prom was singer Steve Lawrence. She majored in pre-law at college, until her uncle, a judge, advised her to switch to journalism.
Barrett became a gossip columnist for the Bell-McClure newspaper syndicate in 1957. In 1966, she began broadcasting Hollywood gossip on the Los Angeles television station KABC-TV. She appeared on TV regularly, going on to appear on ABC's five owned and operated stations around the country. However, not everyone was thrilled with the arrangement. WABC-TV in New York put her pre-recorded gossip segment into its nightly local news, but anchor Roger Grimsby would generally introduce it by making disparaging comments about her. Barrett made the enemies list of Frank Sinatra by criticizing his personal life, particularly his relationships with his children.
She developed the first in-depth personal TV specials about the celebrities of motion pictures, television, music, sports and politics, and had a series of magazines on the entertainment industry that were top-rated at newsstands, including Rona Barrett's Hollywood. As such she paved the way for Barbara Walters and many entertainment reporters.
Barrett was first married to Bill Trowbridge; they were married on September 22, 1973 and remained so until his death on December 7, 2001. She recently married Daniel Busby on February 14, 2008.
In 1972, her novel titled The Lovo-maniacs was published. Her autobiography, Miss Rona, was published in 1974. It memorably began: "Just an inch, Miss Rona, just let me put it in an inch!" as the hunky westerns actor Hugh O'Brian pleaded to be allowed to experience a modicum of sexual intercourse with her. In the book she also acknowledged having a nose job. She wrote two other books, How You Can Look Rich and Achieve Sexual Ecstasy (1978) and The Man Who Will Be King, Unauthorized Biography of Prince Charles (1980).
Barrett began appearing on Good Morning America in 1975. She was signed in 1980 to co-host NBC's Tomorrow with Tom Snyder, but a very public feud with Snyder resulted in her leaving the show the following year. In 1986, she bought a ranch at Santa Ynez, California, and began commuting back and forth to Los Angeles. In 1990, she made a guest appearance as an interviewer at WWE's WrestleMania VI at Skydome in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, appearing in two segments. In the first, she interviewed Randy Savage's former valet (kayfabe), Miss Elizabeth. In the second segment, she was interviewed by the event's play-by-play announcer and color analyst, respectively, Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse "The Body" Ventura. In 1991, she retired full time to her ranch, where she began planting fields of lavender.
Rona found marketing lavender flowers was not simple and decided to duplicate Paul Newman's methods from Newman's Own products. She founded the Rona Barrett Lavender Company, in Santa Ynez, near Santa Barbara, in the Central Coast region of California, as a small producer of lavender bath, beauty, food and aromatherapy products. The company follows a model of using celebrity-branded consumer goods to generate funds and raise awareness of a non-profit cause. A portion of all company proceeds are donated to the Rona Barrett Foundation. According to the foundation's website, they have ceased selling lavender products.
Rona started The Rona Barrett Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the aid and support of senior citizens in need that is supported by a 2% portion of the profits from her lavender business.
