Whoopi Goldberg shut down her The View cohost Ana Navarro’s claims that the late Bill Geddie was involved in the controversial firing of Joy Behar a decade ago.
“[Geddie] hired Joy and fired Joy. And she still loves him!” Navarro, 51, said on the Monday, July 24, episode of The View as they discussed the legacy of the show’s cocreator, who died on Friday, July 21, at age 68. (Behar, 80, was missing from the Monday episode and Sherri Shepherd joined as a guest host to pay tribute to Geddie.)
After Navarro’s statement Goldberg, 67, let her cohost know she was wrong about Behar’s controversial and brief exit.
“He didn’t fire Joy,” Goldberg said in a serious tone while shaking her head. “No, he did not, that was … yeah.”
After pointing out Alyssa Farrah Griffin had a “question,” Goldberg did not elaborate on her correction and the panel moved on to their next talking point.
In 2013, Behar — who was one of the original hosts alongside Barabra Walters — was temporarily let go from The View for two years. Her cohost Elisabeth Hasselback was also fired at the time. Walters and Geddie — who created the show together in 1997 — were the primary executive producers of the morning show at the time of the duo’s firing. (Walters died in December 2022 at age 93.)
“Joy Behar has been instrumental in the success of The View from the very beginning,” ABC said in a statement at the time. “We wish her all the best in this next chapter, and are thrilled that we have her for the remainder of the season.”
It was subsequently reported that Behar was leaving the show on her own to pursue other projects. During her hiatus, Behar would make guest appearances on the show before she made her permanent return in 2015.
However, nearly a decade after her dramatic exit, she admitted that wasn’t the case.
“I was glad to be fired,” Behar told Time in 2022. “I basically was sick of the show at that point for some reason, I don’t even remember why.”
While Behar hasn’t discussed the reason behind her exit, she has joked about her short-lived departure from the ABC talk show.
“I’ve been on this show for 26 years, right?,” she said on a May episode of The View. “With a small hiatus as we all know — forced.”
