Meghan McCain attends Variety’s 3rd Annual Salute To Service at Cipriani
(Picture: Getty Images)Meghan McCain is getting candid about the real reason she decided to quit The View — and it has everything to do with Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg.
Variety obtained an excerpt of her new audio memoir, “Bad Republican” where the former co-host describes what she calls a “toxic” work environment.
McCain was the resident conservative on the show and was known for unapologetically making her right-wing views known. Throughout her four years on the show, however, she claims she experienced “toxic, direct and purposeful hostility.”
In McCain’s view she believes Goldberg, Behar, and some of the staff “grew meaner and less forgiving” as Trump’s tenure wore on. “It was as if I had become an avatar for everything they hated about the president,” which she found particularly confusing as “Whoopi and Joy saw front and center the emotional trauma I had experienced from President Trump’s attacks on my family.”
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When McCain, first joined The View back in 2017, she said she felt a connection with Goldberg. But their relationship took a turn for the worse when she felt “open disdain” from Goldberg. Describing her former co-host she says: “Once she turns on you, it can create unfathomable tension at the table.”
Despite the said tension, McCain continued on the show. When she returned from maternity leave after giving birth to her daughter, Liberty, McCain said it was an on-air heated exchange with Behar that was the final straw.
The daughter of the late Sen. John McCain said that on her second day back at work, McCain attempted to alleviate the tension with a tongue-in-cheek line, saying: "Joy, you missed me so much when I was on maternity leave. You missed fighting with me."
"I did not," Behar responding without skipping a beat. "I did not miss you. Zero."
McCain recalled in her memoir that she felt like she’d be “slapped” during that now-viral moment.
When the show went to commercial, McCain said she burst into “uncontrollable sobbing” at the “nasty” remark and was “super hurt” as she dealt with post-partum hormones.
That’s when she concluded that her time atThe View had come to a close. “This sh*t isn’t worth it. Nothing in life is worth it,” she says.
The former TV host said she told her executive producer to ask Behar to apologize after the show feeling that Behar had "humiliated” her live on air. The executive told her that wouldn’t be happening and that everyone needed to move on.
Ultimately, McCain parted ways with The View, stating that she "just did not have the emotional bandwidth anymore.” McCain left the ABC show with two years remaining on her contract.
Indy100 has reached out to McCain, Behar, and Goldberg’s reps for comment.
