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‘The View’ Denies Joy Behar Is Retiring in 2022 After She Says She Doesn’t See Herself ‘Staying for More’

Joy Behar to Retire From The View in 2022
Joy Behar attends the world premiere screening of Amazon's "Crisis In Six Scenes" in New York on September 15, 2016.Marion Curtis/Starpix/Shutterstock

The end of an era? Joy Behar suggested that she plans to retire from The View in the summer of 2022, which would end her 21-year stint on the ABC daytime talk show.

Related: Every ‘The View’ Cohost Since the Show’s 1997 Premiere

“I have a three-year contract,” the comedian, 77, said in the upcoming paperback edition of journalist Ramin Setoodeh’s book Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of The View, via Variety. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t leave if I want to, because they can’t really do anything to me at this point. I don’t see myself staying for more [time]. That’s it!”

Behar admitted that she “could be wrong” and would reconsider her options “if I’m as fabulous in [2022] as I am now.” However, she told the author, “The chances of that happening. … You know, time marches on. I’m not a kid.”

A spokesperson for The View, however, tells Us Weekly, “This is not true. Joy was asked what happens at the end of her contract and as she herself made clear in the interview, if she’s ‘as fabulous in [2022] as I am now,’ she will be in her seat at the table.”

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The Brooklyn native was one of the original cohosts when The View premiered in August 1997. She sat at the iconic table alongside series creator Barbara Walters, moderator Meredith Vieira, Star Jones and Debbie Matenopoulos.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Joy Behar on The View Joy Behar to Retire From The View in 2022
Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin and Meghan McCain on ‘The View.’ ABC/Lou Rocco

Behar, a vocal Democrat, was fired in 2013 when network executives attempted to make the show less political. However, she continued to make guest appearances before returning full-time two years later. The Great Gasbag: An A–Z Study Guide to Surviving Trump World author has been a regular cohost ever since and holds the record as the series’ longest-running presenter.

The current panel also includes Whoopi Goldberg, Sunny Hostin, Meghan McCain and Abby Huntsman.

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Behar has been filming The View from her home in The Hamptons since mid-March as a precaution during the coronavirus pandemic. Goldberg, 64, Hostin, 51, McCain, 35, and Huntsman, 33, later followed suit and began appearing via satellite.

Setoodeh’s book, which was originally published in April 2019, includes interviews with past and present View cohosts, producers, agents, show guests and network executives. It made headlines for a number of bombshells regarding Behar’s feud with Jones, 58, and Rosie O’Donnell’s crush on Elisabeth Hasselbeck, among other topics.

O’Donnell, 58, told Us Weekly exclusively in 2019 that despite the tell-all’s immense popularity, agreeing to participate in it is her “biggest regret.”

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