Joy Behar Says Barbara Walters ‘Regretted’ Firing Her From ‘The View’

Joy Behar reflected on the time she was unceremoniously shafted from The View, insisting that the late Barbara Walters regretted giving her the boot.

Appearing on the Wednesday, September 10 edition of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, Behar, 82, recalled being fired “twice” from the show.

“Barbara fired me at one point. Fired me twice, actually,” she explained to Cohen. “Okay, so one of the times that she fired me was just because they decided to fire me. Had something to do with a Democrat and a Republican. That’s what they told me.”

Behar started on The View in 1997 as one of the original panelists until she was let go in 2013. (The TV personality later rejoined the show as a regular cohost in 2015.)

During WWHL, Behar said that Walters appeared to have a change of heart soon after firing her – but by then it was too late.

“So she sacked me, right? So we’re planning to tell the story on air, yeah? And during the commercial break she says to me, ‘Tell them you’ve changed your mind.’” Behar recalled. “I said, ‘Barbara, you just fired me. How am I supposed to change my mind?”

Behar added that Walters “regretted it” and insisted that the show pulled out all the stops to get her back.

“They didn’t just bring me back, they begged me. Let’s be clear,” she said.

The TV appearance isn’t the first time Behar has addressed her axing.

“I was glad to be fired,” she told TIME in July 2022. “I was basically was sick of the show at that point for some reason, I don’t even remember why.”

Behar also previously opened up to People in March 2017, revealing that despite her departure being played off as her own choice when she left, she actually had no say in it.

“Somebody wanted me gone,” she told the publication at the time.  “It was not 100 percent my choice.”

Behar added, “When they told me they weren’t renewing, I said, ‘Good, I’m out of here.’ I didn’t like the way the show was going at that time.”

For his part, Cohen has long had a keen interest in getting any behind-the-scenes gossip about Behar’s time on The View.

In October 2023, Behar shared on the “Behind the Table” podcast that, “Andy Cohen is on his knees begging me to do a book.”

While Cohen wanted her to detail all her juicy intel from what happened on The View set when the cameras weren’t rolling, Behar expressed hesitation at the idea.

“Remember that book You’ll Never Eat Lunch In This Town Again?” Behar said. “The girl writes a book and talks about things like … one movie star has B.O., another one has bad breath. And then she can’t … You’ll Never Eat Lunch In This Town Again is a good title for the book.”