Meghan McCain. Robin Marchant/Getty Images
Meghan McCain did not have admittedly fond memories from her time cohosting The View.
“My take on the problems of The View are that it’s a show with a lot of demons that started in the beginning, and none of those demons have been exorcised,” McCain told Variety in October 2021.
McCain joined ABC’s The View as a panelist during 2017’s season 21 as the sole conservative voice. After four seasons debating hot topics with the other hosts, McCain opted to leave the show.
While McCain is no longer a View mainstay, she hasn’t been able to resist dissing her former costars whenever they talk negatively about her and her family.
‘The View’ Cohosts Through the Years and Why They Left
Since The View premiered in August 1997, more than 20 women have had permanent roles as cohosts on the ABC morning talk show. The series, which was created by Barbara Walters, features a multi-generational panel that conducts interviews and discusses the news of the day, ranging from politics to entertainment. The original lineup was comprised […]
Keep scrolling for McCain’s candid quotes about The View and its panelists following her departure:
July 2021
“This is going to be my last season here at The View. I will be here through the end of July to finish out the season,” she said on air in July, confirming her exit. “This was not an easy decision. It took a lot of thought and counsel and prayer and talking to my family and my close friends.”
She added: “I feel like this is just the right decision for me at this moment, and I just want to thank all of you. I’m eternally grateful to have had this opportunity here. So seriously, thank you from the absolute bottom of my heart, and I will still be here a month, so if you guys want to fight a little bit more, we have four more weeks!”
August 2021
McCain’s final episode aired on August 6, in which she called the experience a “really wild ride.”
“It’s been, honestly, the best of times and the worst of times in all ways on and off this show,” McCain said at the time before cracking a joke. “Thank you all from the bottom of my heart and I hope our executive producer Brian can forgive me for making his blood pressure rise for the past four years as much as I probably have.”
October 2021
“You can watch the show and see that it’s unhinged and disorganized and rowdy,” she told Variety, claiming it was a toxic work environment. “I was the only conservative on the show. The third year, they ended up hiring a producer for me who was also conservative.”
Being the sole conversation voice on The View made McCain feel like her ideas were seldom heard. “I also wanted to be truthful about how I felt about politics and my perspective, and sometimes those two things couldn’t coexist,” she told the magazine. “At a certain point, I made the decision it was more important to be honest than to be liked.”
February 2022
After McCain shared a Valentine’s Day tribute to husband Ben Domenech via Instagram, former cohost Joy Behar took to the comments section. In a since-deleted comment, Behar questioned why McCain needed to share “every thought and sentiment” on social media.
McCain shot back via Twitter (now X), writing, “Imagine spending your Valentines Day trolling your ex colleagues tweet about her husband. It’s pathetic and it creeps me out.”
August 2022
Months later, McCain claimed that Behar was one of the factors in her decision to leave The View.
“I finally went back to the show [after maternity leave], and the day I went back to the show, Joy Behar said on air, ‘Nobody missed you, we didn’t miss you, you shouldn’t have come back,’” McCain claimed on “The Commentary Magazine” podcast. “And I just — I started hysterically crying. Sorry gentlemen, I know, I started lactating on air and I started crying. I didn’t feel supported when I had my [daughter Liberty], and I didn’t feel supported coming back, and that was ultimately it.”
April 2023
McCain currently pens a weekly column for The Daily Mail. In April, she wrote a scathing op-ed about The View.
“Rosie [O’Donnell], Jenny McCarthy, and I have chosen to speak out publicly about our stints on the show. But here’s a secret, behind closed doors I’ve never actually heard an ex-host have anything positive to say,” she wrote. “As for me — may the bridges I burn light the way.”
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October 2023
During an interview with The Messenger, McCain admitted that the only View staffers she misses are in the wardrobe department.
“I just love getting dressed up. So I miss the wardrobe people the most and they’re very kind. They have been the wardrobe people the entire history of the show,” she said, adding that she hasn’t kept up with the new episodes. “It’s kind of like looking at an ex-boyfriend’s Instagram — it’s just not great for you. So no, I don’t watch [the show anymore].”
December 2023
During a December episode of The View, the panelists discussed President Joe Biden’s son Hunter and his decision not to comply with a subpoena about his overseas businesses. Cohost Anna Navarro defended Hunter while shading other children of political figures, citing that Hunter is one of the rare few who doesn’t trade on his parent’s political position. Meghan, whose father is the late Senator John McCain, thought Navarro was indirectly making a dig at her.
“I don’t understand why my former colleagues @TheView @ABC bring me up and slander me on an almost weekly basis,” Meghan wrote via X, though Navarro didn’t bring her up by name. “It has been years — move on, I have. I have never been accused of a crime in my life and am a patriotic American — I would never and have never ‘influenced peddled’ in my life, let alone with foreign adversaries. Not all politicians’ children are the same – and I am no Hunter Biden.”
December 2023
“I just didn’t know that when I signed to do this show that I have to deal with these crazy old people just yelling about me all of the time,” Meghan said on her “Meghan McCain Has Entered the Chat” podcast. “I go whole swaths of time without thinking about them — whole months without thinking about the show or anything. Apparently, I’m just on their minds every day. And it’s pathetic.”
