Joy Behar has been occupying a chair at The View since 1997. She has outlasted fourteen co-hosts, approximately nine network executives, and one full era of American pop culture. And after nearly three decades of Hot Topics, she finally has some things to say about the women who sat beside her.
In a new Vulture profile published last Friday, the 84-year-old OG panelist praised the current lineup — Whoopi, Sunny, Sara, Ana, Alyssa — before casually lobbing a grenade into the room: “Over the years, there’s been a couple of little mean girls.”
She didn’t name names. She absolutely did not need to.
The internet went straight to Meghan McCain, and it went there immediately. McCain co-hosted The View from 2017 to 2021, a run defined by relentless on-air tension. The breaking point came in January 2021 when Behar — live, on camera, in front of millions of people — told McCain she “did not miss” her while she was on maternity leave. McCain later said she had a panic attack and began lactating on-air. She quit a few months after that.
When Behar’s “mean girls” quote started making rounds this week, everyone asked McCain for a reaction. She delivered.
You guys keep asking me for a response and for real, I'm not fighting with an 84 year old. She can say whatever she wants at her stage in life.
“At her stage in life” is doing so much in that sentence. That’s not a pass. That’s a mercy killing wearing a smile. ☕
Note that Meghan explicitly said she would not respond to The View drama — and then responded. A full X post. Quote-posted EW’s coverage. Girl could not help herself, and honestly neither can we.
For her part, Joy remained completely unbothered, as Joy does. When Vulture asked about the infamous 2021 maternity leave moment, Behar offered: “I thought, well, good for you if that’s the worst thing anybody said to you. I wouldn’t say we were having dinner every night, but we got along fine.”
Which is, somehow, an even colder read than the original comment.
Behar also made clear that the current panel is a different vibe entirely: “This group now is very good. They all have a sense of humor. Nobody’s mean over there.” The implication of what over the years meant was left as an exercise for the audience.
McCain did not revisit the specifics of their clashes in her reply, and Behar has not publicly responded to the response. The feud, as is tradition with The View, will simply keep generating content until someone blinks — or writes a book.
Neither of them seems close to blinking.
For another on-screen personality who learned the hard way that posting about co-star drama rarely ends well, see Val Chmerkovskiy’s DWTS tweet that earned him a very public apology.
