Meghan McCain Gives New Explanation for Why She Left "The View"
She opened up about the life change—again—in a new interview.
In 2021, Meghan McCain quit The View after co-hosting the show for four years. At the time, she said that she wanted to remain with her family in Washington, D.C. where they spent more time during the COVID-19 pandemic rather than come back to New York City where The View films. She explained that she had a new outlook on life and was prioritizing her loved ones. Now, in a new interview with Parents, McCain has gone into more detail about why she quit, including that she didn't "want to be yelled at" anymore.
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The former panel member now has a podcast, Meghan McCain Has Entered the Chat, and she explained to Parents why it's more in line with her current career goals than The View was.
"I want a real break after The View. I don't want to yell at anyone; I don't want to be yelled at," she said. "I think there's enough anger and intensity in the world that I don't need to contribute to it. And as cheesy as it sounds, having daughters really changed the way I felt about what I was putting out in the world."
McCain and her husband, Ben Domenech, welcomed their first child, Liberty, in 2020 and their second daughter, Clover, in 2023. McCain told Parents that her daughters made her want to be more positive, including in her career in political commentary. "It's not screaming with other women on TV," she said. "I was like, I'm just not moving the needle the way I want and I felt really guilty about it."
The 39-year-old wrote about becoming disillusioned by The View in her 2021 book, Bad Republican. She said that she felt slighted by co-host Joy Behar's comments when she returned from maternity leave.
"To make light of things and to ease the tension, I said, 'Joy, you missed me so much when I was on maternity leave! You missed fighting with me!,'" she wrote of an on-air discussion between the two. "'I did not,' Joy said. 'I did not miss you. Zero.'"
McCain said she took the insult hard and ended up having a panic attack. "I felt like I'd been slapped," she wrote. She said she told producers she wanted Behar to apologize but was told that wouldn't happen. This incident was the last straw for McCain.
"I didn't have the emotional bandwidth anymore to try with any of them anymore," McCain wrote of her co-hosts. "I thought I was part of a show where women can have the kinds of conversations that society doesn't generally make space for women to have. But, for me, The View didn't feel like a pro-women show. Soon after I returned, it hit me: I didn't want to be a part of that, for myself, for my daughter and for women everywhere."
When McCain announced that she was leaving the daytime talk show in July 2021, she claimed that it was about where she wanted to be based.
"We have this incredible life here," she explained of living in D.C. "We're surrounded by my family, [my husband's] family, friends, by this incredible support unit. I think as any new mom knows, when I think about where I want Liberty to have her first steps and her first words, I just have this really wonderful life here that, ultimately, I felt that I didn't want to leave."
