Meghan McCain Opens Up About ‘Toxic Environment’ on ‘The View’ & Feud With Joy Behar
Ahead of the release of her new memoir, Bad Republican, Meghan McCain is opening up about why she left The View, the show’s “toxic work environment,” and her rivalry with co-host Joy Behar.
In an interview with Variety, McCain said that when joining the long-running ABC talk show, “there is an expectation you won’t survive.” She explained that “When you come in as a host, you are a rotating peg on a carousel, and you’ll be in and out. It doesn’t breed an environment where you’re close. It feels siloed. There was no collaboration.”
McCain, who had co-hosted the show for four seasons, announced her decision to exit on July 1. Her last episode aired on August 6. As the only Republican on the show, McCain often felt like she was fighting a losing battle.
“I was working on the show as the only conservative during the Trump years,” she said. “I felt like a lot of people took out their anger on the administration on me because I was the only person in the building who was a Republican.”
“People were not comfortable around me,” she continued. “I was there less than a month when the first article came out about me, about what a disappointment I was and my nickname backstage was “Elsa the ice princess.”
McCain went on to say that this fostered a toxic workplace, but that she believes these issues have plagued the show from the start. “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.”
In terms of her choice to leave the show, she said she decided on her second day back from maternity leave, “when Joy told me that ‘Nobody missed me — zero.'” Having postpartum depression, McCain said she was already nervous returning to work, and Behar’s comment tipped her over the edge. She ended up having a panic attack backstage.
“I asked for an apology from our executive producer and [Behar’s] producer. They said she wouldn’t do it. I don’t know if they asked her.”
The View, Season 25, Weekdays, 11am/10c, ABC
