During the 22-year run of this daytime chat fest, drama has remained a constant.
Hosts storming off set, hot mics, hallway fights, diva behavior, and secret crushes
all have a seat at the table as we take a look at some of the dark secrets of the cast
of The View.
Fox News host Jeanine Pirro brought her unwavering brand of Trump support to The View in 2018
to promote her book Liars, Leakers, and Liberals: The Case Against the Anti-Trump Conspiracy.
Not surprisingly, she and left-leaning co-host Whoopi Goldberg got into a heated argument
in which Pirro accused Goldberg of having "Trump Derangement Syndrome."
"Did you just point at me?”
“Yessss…”
“Listen, I don't have Trump derangement, let me tell you what I have."
Pirro wasn't about to back down, snapping back with her feelings on illegal immigrants
taking the lives of American children — and that's where Goldberg ended the segment.
"You know what's horrible?
When the president of the United States whips up people to beat the hell out of people.
Say goodbye.
Bye."
The argument continued after the cameras stopped rolling, and depending on who you ask, what
happened is up for debate.
During an appearance on Fox & Friends, Pirro claimed Goldberg confronted her in the hallway
and cursed her out.
"And then she said, get the F out of this building, get the F out of this building,
so I'm there and I'm like, okay."
However, addressing the confrontation the next day on-air, Goldberg denied throwing
her out of the building and said it was Pirro who became combative.
"She could have just passed me, she didn't need to stop but she stopped, and put her
finger in my face and yelled, 'I've done more for victims than you ever will!'
Goldberg claimed that Pirro stormed out — cursing the people who book the show — and Goldberg
returned to the stage for the next segment.
Elisabeth Hasselbeck ended her decade-long run on The View in 2013, but it almost ended
in 2006 when she nearly quit after a heated on-air argument with Barbara Walters that
bled into the hallway following a commercial break, according to Variety.
During a Hot Topics debate about the FDA's proposal to allow over-the-counter purchases
of the morning-after pill, Hasselbeck, a staunch conservative, claimed the emergency contraception
was, quote, "the same thing as birthing a baby and leaving it out in the street" — but
Walters put a stop to that.
"Elizabeth, Calm down dear."
"I can't, this makes me so upset, Barbara."
"But everyone has strong opinions."
The show then cut to commercial, but not before Hasselbeck tore up her notecards, and well,
that's when the real show started — at least for the control room.
An audio recording was later released of her meltdown.
Co-host Joy Behar asked Hasselbeck to come into her office to talk it out, but Hasselbeck
kept raging.
"She just reprimanded me and she knew exactly what she was doing, Goodbye.
I'm off.
Write about that in the New York f---ing Post!"
A producer eventually coaxed her back onto the stage, where she and Walters ended up
hugging it out.
If you watched any of The View from 2006-2007, you know that former co-hosts Hasselbeck and
Rosie O'Donnell seemed close to throwing blows at any second.
Their diametrically opposed politics led to some of the most infamous arguments on the
show, but according to Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of The View, O'Donnell
had a secret platonic crush on the younger Republican.
What's more, O'Donnell believed Hasselbeck secretly shared her feelings, claiming that
she sensed, quote, "underlying lesbian tones on both parts."
O'Donnell went further, explicitly stating to the book's author,
"There are not many, in my life, girls with such athletic talent on sport teams that are
traditionally male that aren't at least a little bit gay."
As it turns out, Hasselbeck didn't share those feelings.
Calling O'Donnell's comments as "offensive" and "disturbing" during an appearance on Fox
& Friends, Hasselbeck blasted the comedian for objectifying women in the workplace and
using stereotypes of female athletes.
However, Hasselbeck went on to say that she's forgiven her former co-worker due to her Christian
faith.
"I hope that she can find ultimately the peace.
Even more than I want to be at peace with her, I hope she finds that peace because God
wants that for her too."
Jenny McCarthy told the author of Ladies Who Punch,
"You know the movie Mommie Dearest?
I've never seen a woman yell like that before until I worked with Barbara Walters."
The incident McCarthy refers to happened in 2007 when she appeared as a guest on The View
to discuss her controversial anti-vaccination book, Louder Than Words: A Mother's Journey
in Healing Autism.
Discussing a conversation in Walters' dressing room.
McCarthy claimed,
"She was screaming, 'How dare you say this!
That autism can be cured?'
My knees were shaking.
I remember my whole body was shaking."
McCarthy said this continued for seven minutes until someone pulled her out.
She added,
"I went back to my dressing room, not knowing what the f--- to do.
One of my heroes just chewed me a new a------, and I'm going on live TV.
I'm freaking the f--- out."
Six years later, McCarthy accepted a co-hosting gig on the show, and her time on the show
was no picnic, either.
In Ladies Who Punch, McCarthy said,
"Every day I went home and I was miserable.
It really was the most miserable I've been on a job in my 25 years of show business."
According to Ladies Who Punch, former co-host Star Jones was the "nastiest" diva during
her time on The View.
Producers were allegedly required to follow a specific protocol when dropping off each
show's Hot Topics to Jones — no eye contact, leave her note cards on a shelf near the door,
and run.
Jones allegedly made a producer cry on her first day on set to flex a power move.
One custodian reportedly had to clean up a dead mouse that had been crushed under all
the clothes and shoes Jones had stacked in the room.
Jones' alleged rude behavior and less than ideal cleanliness didn't make her many friends,
but it did offer Jones a chance at some eventual self-reflection.
She admitted in the book,
"I think I got-- too big for my britches.
My ego started to take over, and I didn't know how to pull back.
I didn't know how not to be larger-than-life."