Meghan McCain’s “The View” co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sara Haines and Sunny Hostin were reportedly caught off guard by the news that she is leaving the show.
According to a report in the Daily Mail, McCain’s co-hosts did not know until Thursday that McCain was resigning.
“I’m going to rip the Band-Aid off,” McCain said on Thursday’s show. “I am here to tell you – all of my wonderful co-hosts and viewers at home – that this is going to be my last season here at ‘The View.’ It’s not easy to leave. But I feel like this is the right decision for me at the moment.”
The Daily Mail reported that both the show and the network, ABC, had tried to persuade McCain to stay. But McCain was apparently “adamant” that it’s the right time for her to go. The “View” co-host reportedly has two years left on her contract with the show.
‘The View’ Tried to Keep McCain – But With Conditions
In a statement released after the Thursday show aired, ABC said that it respected McCain’s decision.
“For the past four years, Meghan McCain has brought her fierce determination and vast political knowledge and experience to ‘The View,’” the network said in the statement. “She recently came to us with her decision to depart the show at the end of this season, a difficult choice that she made for her and her family that we respect and understand. We wish the best for Meghan as she plans her next chapter, and thank her for the passion and unique voice that she shared with us and our viewers each day.”
The network did try to keep McCain. But according to People, it had also been firm about McCain returning to the show’s New York City studio. However, since the pandemic hit, McCain has relocated to Washington, D.C. and given birth to a daughter, Liberty, with husband Ben Domenech.
McCain’s family has settled into their new home. And now McCain’s mother, Cindy McCain, is serving as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture in the new administration. So she will be in D.C., too.
“The geography was a big piece of it,” a source told People.
McCain has been co-hosting “The View” since September of 2017. While her co-stars were apparently surprised by the news, they offered some kind words on her departure. Goldberg spoke poignantly about the late Sen. John McCain and Behar praising McCain for “stick[ing her] neck out” on the show “brilliantly.”
McCain will serve out the rest of the current season, which ends in late July.
