Update (10/19/21 5:15 p.m. ET): A spokesperson for the show told HollywoodLife in a statement that the team behind the show is supportive. “For 25 years, The View has been a platform on air and behind the scenes for strong women. Live television and different perspectives can often lead to surprising moments, but the team is collaborative and supportive – focused on delivering an informative daily talk show to our loyal viewers,” the spokesperson said.
Original: Meghan McCain opened up about her experience on The View in a new excerpt from her upcoming memoir Bad Republican, published by Variety on Tuesday October 19. The 36-year-old former co-host revealed that she thinks that “the atmosphere of The View breeds drama” and detailed what she felt was a toxic work environment. Meghan opened up about how her feelings towards the way she was treated shifted even more after her daughter Liberty was born.
Meghan spoke about how coverage of the daytime talk show has a bad habit to skew misogynistic, and it will inevitably lead to drama. “My take on the show is that working at The View brings out the worst in people. I believe that all the women and the staff are working under conditions where the culture is so f**ked up, it feels like quicksand,” she wrote, before she accused ABC of failing to “lay down the law” when it comes to the show. “HR reports seem to fall on deaf ears, starting from years before I worked there. And as a result, people — both on camera and off — feel empowered to act however they like, and do whatever they want. In my four years there, I was the target of plenty of shade — too much to even begin to recount — and then I also experienced more toxic, direct and purposeful hostility.”
As the show’s lone conservative co-host, Meghan revealed that she felt like she drew more ire from her co-hosts and staff for her political leanings. “I felt like I was being often being punished and singled out for being a conservative. I’d hear a lot of complaints that the staff, including the other co-hosts and producers, had problems with my ‘personality,'” she wrote, mentioning that she felt she could “handle it and manage it,” for much of her time at the start.
While she was able to handle much of the tension when she first arrived on the show, Meghan mentioned that her feelings changed after she had Liberty and experienced postpartum anxiety. “As I was dealing with my own emotions, I couldn’t also navigate the idea that I was hated and felt hated at a toxic work environment. The second that feeling set in, it started to snowball into me thinking that everyone hated me. And because of that, I was worried even more that someone would steal or kidnap my child — as a way of hurting me,” she wrote. Meghan explained that “she felt like The View didn’t feel like a pro-women show,” and she started to want to leave after her daughter was born. “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,” she wrote.
While the excerpt criticized much of the culture surrounding The View, Meghan ultimately revealed that she didn’t feel “bitter or angry,” upon leaving, but she did mention that she felt like ABC should offer paid family leave to all of its employees. ABC does offer parental leave to full-time employees. The excerpt ended with her on the way to the studio to announce that she’d be leaving the show, but she stopped at a coffeeshop where she heard one of her dad’s favorite bands ABBA playing, and it reassured her that leaving was the right move.
Bad Republican will be available via Audible on October 21.