Barbara Walters Felt "Betrayed" By This Co-Host of "The View"

Walters was blindsided when Star Jones announced her departure on air.

Back in June 2006, then-host Star Jones surprised her co-workers by announcing her departure from the show during the live taping. Jones shared with the audience that ABC had not renewed her contract for the next season.

"Something has been on my heart for a little bit," she said. "I feel like this is the right time to tell you that the show is moving in another direction for its 10th season, and I will not be returning as co-host next year."

That same day, Walters told the Associated Press, per Today, that Jones was supposed to announce that she wouldn't be coming back to The View two days later, which is why she and the rest of the panelists were so surprised. She also said that Jones breaking from that plan hurt her feelings.

“I love Star and I was trying to do everything I possibly could—up until this morning when I was betrayed—to protect her,” Walters explained.

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Jones said that she felt she "was fired" from the show.

Walters also discovered that Jones had quietly done an interview with People, saying that she felt as though "[she] was fired" from The View. Walters indicated to the AP that she believed Jones framing the situation that way hurt the reputation of the show.

“I would have loved for Star to have left and not said ‘I was fired,’ and not make it look like the program was somehow being cruel to her,” she said.

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Walters claimed that Jones' contract wasn't renewed because the audience was "losing trust in her."

Walters claimed that the network decided not to renew Jones' contract because of audience research that supposedly showed declining trust in the host. She mentioned Jones' drastic weight loss after gastric bypass surgery, a procedure she chose not to disclose or discuss on-air, as a possible reason for viewers' turnaround on her.

However, Walters said she tried to keep Jones on the show.

“We tried to talk [ABC] out of it,” she explained to the AP. "And we tried to give Star time to redeem herself in the eyes of the audience, and the research just kept getting worse."

Speaking to The New York Times, the day after Jones left The View, Walters again claimed that the choice was made based on audience research.

"It was things she [Jones] did off the air," Walters said. "The audience was losing trust in her. They didn't believe some of the things she said."

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Jones later said she understood the show's "business decision" to let her go.

While appearing on Larry King Live in July 2006, Jones said that she understood why her contract was not renewed.

"I looked at it a business decision," she explained to Larry King. "In April when I was told that the numbers weren't adding up and that they were going to make a change. You know emotionally you go, 'After nine years, you want to be angry and upset'...so I said, 'Be professional, people's jobs depend on you.' So I went to work and said, 'It's a business decision.'"

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Jones also explained why she decided to announce her departure early.

Jones also shared with King that there were "relentless" rumors about her leaving The View before it was even officially announced, which is why she wanted to get ahead of it. She even claimed that the news had been leaked and that someone had started a countdown clock to her last day online.

"I realized it was turning into a circus atmosphere," she said. "And the viewers deserve, after nine years, me to not go out in a circus atmosphere."

King said Walters had told him that she had planned to do a tribute to Jones on The View during what was meant to be her last episode. However, Jones said that she never agreed to any of that fanfare.

"I agreed that I would make the announcement that I would leave on Thursday," she said. "I specifically said that I did not want a big large tribute. I didn't feel that way after being told that my contract wasn't going to be renewed."

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