Joy Behar

**Joy Behar** (born **Josephine Victoria Behar** on October 7, 1942 in Williamsburg Brooklyn, New York) is an American Comedienne, Actress, Writer & Author. She is best known for being one of the original hostesses of the ABC daytime talk show *The View*, since it's 1997 debut. She has also hosted her own self-titled talk show, *The Joy Behar Show* on the HLN network from 2009-2011, followed by *Joy Behar: Say Anything!* on Current TV from 2012-2013 and also *Late Night Joy* on TLC in 2015. She once appeared as a celebrity guest on the Michael Strahan version of *The $100,000 Pyramid*.

## Early Life & Career

Born Josephine Occhiuto in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, an only child to a Roman Catholic family of Italian descent. Joy's mother, Rose, worked as a seamstress while her father, Gino Occhiuto, worked as a truck driver for Coca-Cola. In 1964, Behar earned a BA in sociology from Queens College and two years later, she earned an MA in English education from Stony Brook University. From there, she then worked as a teacher until the early 1970s, she taught English on Long Island at Lindenhurst Senior High School in Lindenhurst, New York. In addition to her teaching job, she also studied acting at HB Studio.

## Comedy Career & *The View*

It wasn't until the early 1980s when Behar began her career in show business. She first worked as a receptionist and later became a producer on ABC's *Good Morning America*. But her calling and her passion was doing comedy. As a stand-up comedienne, she worked her way up the ladder, making appearances on *Good Morning America* and *The New Show*, a short-lived created by *Saturday Night Live* creator Lorne Michaels for the NBC network. In 1987, Behar hosted a talk show on Lifetime Television called *Way Off Broadway* as well as the show *Live from Queens*. From there, she became a regular on the comedy club circuit, from being a regular performer on NBC's *Baby Boom* to landing minor film roles including *Cookie*, *This Is My Life*, and *Manhattan Murder Mystery*.

She was also a WABC radio talk-show hostess and made appearances on HBO comedy specials *One Night Stand* and *Women of the Night 2*.

Aside from all of her comedy routines, Joy's other biggest accomplishment came in August 1997. She was announced as one of the original hostesses/panel members of a newly daytime talk show titled *The View* (debuting on the 11th on ABC), co-created by broadcast journalist Barbara Walters, whom also appeared as co-hostess, along with fellow journalist Meredith Vieira (who served as the show's lead-hostess/moderator), attorney & TV personality Star Jones & up-and-coming TV personality Debbie Matenopoulos. Originally, Behar only appeared on the days when Walters would be off but ultimately became a permanent co-hostess. She also occasionally hosted a segment called "Joy's Comedy Corner" in which she presented both established and up-and-coming comedians.

## Controversies

Throughout her years as co-hostess on *The View*, Behar occasionally made headlines as well as some controversies. She had well-publicized disputes with fellow co-hostess Star Jones. On March 2006, Jones phoned into the show to discuss a recent operation that she had undergone and after talking with her co-workers, Behar abruptly stated to Jones, "OK, Star. That's enough about you. On to us. Bye. Keep your tits perky!", prompting Jones to fire back by responding, "Even today, you [Behar] are still a bitch.". Later that June, Star Jones made the announcement that she would not be returning to *The View* as co-hostess for the then-upcoming 10th season but would remain on the series through July. Despite this, Barbara Walters announced the following day that Jones would no longer appear on the show with the exception of previously recorded segments, publicly claiming feeling "betrayed" by Jones for unexpectedly making the announcement two days ahead of schedule. In an interview with *People* magazine, Star Jones claimed the decision to leave was not hers and that producers informed her that they would not be renewing her contract in April as Barbara Walters later stated that ABC executives had decided not to renew Jones' contract due to diminished approval for Jones through their market research. In addition to Star's controversial exit, also to depart the series was Meredith Vieira, who served as the original lead hostess/moderator since it's August 1997 premiere (Meredith exited *The View* to join the NBC Morning news program *The Today Show*, replacing Katie Couric as co-anchor). For *The View's* historic 10th season, which kicked off on September 5, 2006, Behar, Walters & Elisabeth Hasselbeck were joined by a beloved Daytime TV fan favorite: Comedienne, Actress & former talk show hostess Rosie O'Donnell, who signed on as the show's newest lead hostess/moderator (Rosie departed the series in May 2007 after a bitter on-air feud with Hasselbeck and was later replaced by fellow Comedienne & EGOT Winner, Whoopi Goldberg).

In October 2010, Behar made headlines again after an explosive on-air, heated debate with former Fox News contributor Bill O'Rielly which caused her and fellow Comedienne & co-hostess Whoopi Goldberg to storm off the stage. During the segment, Bill O'Rielly discussed then-President Barack Obama's stance on Park51, a Muslim community center that was slated to be built two blocks from ground zero in Manhattan and later claimed that "Muslims killed us on 9/11" which did NOT sit well with Goldberg or Behar, who then jumped up and shouted "This is BS. I don't want to be here now, I don't" as she walked off the stage with Goldberg following behind as the studio audience erupted in thunderous cheers & applause, leaving their fellow co-hostesses Barbara Walters, Sherri Shepherd & Elisabeth Hasselbeck stunned. Walters then tried to establish equilibrium after Joy and Whoopi left the stage as she said "I want to say something to all of you" to the studio audience, she continued "You have just seen what should not happen. We should be able to have discussions without washing our hands and screaming and walking off stage. I love my colleagues but that should not have happened". Walters then turned her attention to O'Reilly and reprimanded him for taking a whole religion and demeaning it. He then offered an apology saying "If anyone felt that I was demeaning all Muslims, I apologize". A short time later, Behar and Goldberg both returned to the set as Goldberg sat next to O'Reilly (where Joy previously sat prior to walking off) and Behar sat next to Walters and acknowledged his apology.

In September 2015, Behar once again made headlines and this time around, it nearly cost both her and *The View* dearly. She and former co-hostess & fellow comedienne Michelle Collins poked fun at the Miss America 2016 contestant Kelley Johnson's monologue about her occupation as a registered nurse, during which Johnson had on nursing scrubs and a stethoscope. Collins had called Johnson's monologue "hilarious" and that "she was reading her emails out loud," while Behar questioned why Johnson had "a doctor's stethoscope on." The controversy resulted in an immediate social media backlash from the nursing profession, including the hashtag #NursesUnite. Two days later, both Behar and Collins addressed the controversy on the show and subsequently apologized but some critics questioned the sincerity of their apologies. In addition, Johnson & Johnson and Eggland's Best pulled their sponsorships from *The View* later followed by McCormick & Company, Snuggle, and Party City. Michelle Collins would be later dismissed from her hosting duties on *The View* a short time later.

On February 2018, during a discussion about Omarosa Manigault-Newman's comments in regards to disgraced, former Vice President Mike Pence's religiosity, Behar remarked: "It's one thing to talk to Jesus, it's another thing when Jesus talks to you. That's called mental illness, if I'm not correct, hearing voices." While Behar clarified later in the show that she did not think Pence was mentally ill, her earlier remarks sparked criticism as well as a response from Pence himself, who then accused the show of expressing "religious intolerance" (Behar also became a target of frequent attacks made by supporters of disgraced, twice-impeached former president, Donald J. Trump).

Content analysis organization Media Research Center subsequently launched a campaign demanding an apology from Behar and urging viewers to do so, resulting in 40,000 calls to ABC as well as 6,000 complaints to the show's advertisers. The Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger later insisted that Behar has directly apologized to Pence. On March 13th, Behar did indeed issue an apology on air, stating: "I think Vice President Pence is right; I was raised to respect everyone’s religious faith, and I fell short of that. I sincerely apologize for what I said".

## Departure from *The View* & later return, other Talk Shows

In March 2013, it was announced that Behar would be exiting *The View* at the end of the show's then-16th season. Also, reports surfaced that fellow co-hostess Elisabeth Hasselbeck would also be departing the series at the end of the season. Due to market research, it showed that both her and Behar's views (notably on politics) became too polarizing to viewers, which Barbara Walters adamantly denied. Despite this, Hasselbeck announced on the July 10th episode that she was leaving *The View* to join the Fox News morning program *Fox & Friends* and that would be her final appearance on the show as Behar's final appearance on *The View*, a *This is Your Life-style* tribute to her, aired on August 9th.

Prior to her departure from *The View*, Behar told *Deadline*, "It seemed like the right time...You reach a point when you say to yourself, 'Do I want to keep doing this?' There are other things on my plate I want to do — I've been writing a play, I've been neglecting my standup. Although she left *The View* in August 2013, Behar occasionally appeared as guest hostess throughout 2014 and 2015.

Beginning in 2007, she occasionally filled in for Larry King on *Larry King Live*. In June 2009, Behar announced that she would be hosting her own news/talk program on CNN's HLN beginning in the fall, titled *The Joy Behar Show* as she then began pulling double duty in addition to still co-hosting *The View*, working both shows simultaneously. Despite being the network's second highest-rated show, HLN decided to cancel the talk show after only two years as the final broadcast of *The Joy Behar Show* aired on December 15, 2011.

In June 2012, it was formally announced that Behar landed another talk show,
*Joy Behar: Say Anything!* (while still co-hosting *The View*), premiering September 4, 2012 on the Current TV network. It's content is expected to be in line with her previous HLN series. Before the new show's launch, Behar began acting as fill-in host for Eliot Spitzer's Current TV talk show, Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer, starting on July 18, 2012. The show ended in August 2013 due to Current TV being purchased by Al Jazeera and being replaced by Al Jazeera America.

Joy hosted a third talk show, this time around on late night television, titled
*Late Night Joy*, premiering on TLC on November 4, 2014. Each episode features Behar having intimate chats with friends in her New York City apartment.

In August 2015, ABC announced that Behar would be returning to *The View* as permanent co-hostess and joining her would be *Fuller House* star & former Hallmark movie actress Candace Cameron Bure and *Good Morning America Weekend* anchor Paula Faris for the show's then-19th season, premiering on September 8th. The returning Behar, Cameron Bure & Faris joined Whoopi Goldberg, comedienne Michelle Collins & former *Cosby Show* & *That's So Raven* star Raven-Symoné, marking the first time in the show's history that it had six permanent co-hostesses as well as the first time having a full panel of at least five co-hostesses in over a two year period. Joy was quoted as saying, "Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in. Plus, Steve was getting tired of applauding every time I gave my opinion. But I'm happy to be back home. And I'm looking forward to sticking my two cents into the hot topics, especially now that Hillary (Clinton) and the Donald (Trump) are in the spotlight."

In the years that followed, Behar still made occasional headlines, most notably for her on-air clashes with her now former *View* co-hostess Meghan McCain (the daughter of late Senator & 2008 Presidential candidate John McCain), who joined the series in 2017 and exited in August 2021. Behar & McCain's on-air disagreements often became quite temperamental as Joy's outspoken liberal views frequently clashed with Meghan's hardcore conservative (and former Independent) views and they often clash over politics and despite persistent rumors that the two women can't stand each other, Meghan McCain, at the time, insisted that she and Behar, despite their on-air clashes, were great friends and that they occasionally got together to have drinks as girlfriends. But despite that, Behar & McCain continued to bump heads over opposing views and it all escalated to the point of no return come January 2021, only two days after McCain returned to *The View,* following maternity leave after she gave birth to a baby girl, Liberty. During a hot topic discussion over the demise of the once respected Republican Party, with Joy viewing the Republicans as "seditionists", causing division which prompted Meghan to interject, accusing the Democratic Party of doing the same thing. Behar didn't take too kindly to McCain interrupting her, prompting her to shout at her co-hostess that she wasn't done talking but Meghan then appeared to start teasing Joy, saying that Behar missed her so much while she was on maternity leave, missed fighting with her but then Behar defiantly blurted out to McCain: "I did NOT, I did NOT miss you; ZERO". Shocking and taken aback by Behar's brutal remarks, McCain said that her words were so nasty and so rude, prompting Whoopi Goldberg to interject and calm the raging waters.

Months later, after her exit from *The View*, Meghan McCain released an audio memoir titled *"Bad Republican"* and in it, she revisits not only revisits her complicated on-air relationship with Behar but also all of her former *View* colleagues, including Whoopi Goldberg. McCain, in her memoir, says that during her time as a co-hostess on *The View*, she often felt like she was being punished & singled out for being an outspoken conservative, citing that she'd hear numerous complaints that the show's staff, producers AND her work colleagues had problems with her "personality". McCain went on to say that as during the Trump years as the country grew worse under his corrupted "leadership", the treatment from her *View* colleagues (namely Behar & Whoopi Goldberg) and the *View* staff grew meaner and less forgiving towards her, saying that she had became an avatar for everything they hated about the disgraced, twice-impeached former president, inflicting their anger onto her even though she made abundantly clear that she did NOT vote for Trump. But it was after giving birth to her daughter, Liberty, when McCain says that she suffered from postpartum anxiety and things went from bad to worse regarding her work colleagues, namely her constant on-air clashes with Behar and her stating that she believed that the Republican Party liked to cause division with Meghan accusing the Democratic Party of doing the same thing and her teasing Behar saying that she missed her so much while on maternity leave, missed fighting with her with Behar shouting back that she did NOT miss McCain; ZERO. Meghan said that during that commercial break, she broke down in tears, not tearing up but uncontrollable sobbing, she was deeply hurt by Behar's remarks and after that show wrapped for the day, McCain, still reeling over her fight with Behar, said that she rushed down stairs to her dressing room and vomited in a garbage can and resumed her crying meltdown. She says that it was this moment that she knew that it was time to call it quits as she did so at the conclusion of that season. Since her departure from *The View*, Meghan, who now works as a columnist for T*he Daily Mail*, says that she has NOT watched single episode of the long-running talk show and she has not spoken to any of her former on-air work colleagues since she believed that they didn't miss her (McCain also did not take part of the show's 25th Anniversary season where former co-hostesses had returned to guest co-host a single episode).

As of today, Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg both continue on with *The View* as the show's longest-serving co-hostesses with Goldberg having served 16 years as the lead hostess & moderator since August 2007 (after appearing as a frequent guest hostess following Rosie O'Donnell's abrupt departure back in May) while Behar is now in her 26th year as well as being the last original co-hostess standing. The current panel consists of Behar, Goldberg, former prosecuting attorney Sunny Hostin, CNN commentator Ana Navarro, former *Good Morning America* correspondent Sara Haines & Alyssa Farah Griffin, a CNN political commentator & former Trump White House Director of Strategic Communications.

## Personal Life, Other TV appearances & Books

From 1965-1981, Behar was previously married to college professor Joe Behar and they had one child: daughter, Eve Behar Scotti (born in 1970). Through her daughter, Behar has a grandson named Luca (born February 2011).

Since 1982, Joy has been in a relationship with Steve Janowitz, with whom she called her "spousal equivalent" and in March 2009, she announced on *The View* that she might eventually marry Janowitz but three months later, she called off the engagement because she wanted people to stop talking about it.

They eventually married on August 11, 2011.

Behar has made a couple of appearances on the game show circuit, in addition to her appearing as a celebrity guest of Michael Strahan's version of *The $100,000 Pyramid*, in the late 1990s, she once appeared as a panelist on Tom Bergeron's version of *Hollywood Squares* with her fellow (and future) *View* co-hostess Whoopi Goldberg in the center square. Joy has also appeared on the eighth season of Bravo's *Celebrity Poker Showdown*, finishing the game in fourth place, behind actress Robin Tunney, actor Christopher Meloni and singer Macy Gray, but ahead of actor & fellow comedian Andy Dick. She played for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.

She has also appeared in the 2011 comedy film *Hall Pass* (starring Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis), played the role of Dr. Lucy. In October 2017, she appeared as a guest on *Real Time with Bill Maher*. Behar also appeared in Woody Allen's Amazon series *Crisis in Six Scenes*.

Behar has also authored several books with her most recent being: *The Great Gasbag: An A–Z Study Guide to Surviving Trump World* (as she is very vocal about her displeasure about the disgraced president of the United States, which is one of the things that lead to her on-air clashes with *View* co-hostess Meghan McCain), which she publicly released in 2017. Other books include: *Joy Shtick: Or What is the Existential Vacuum and Does it Come with Attachments* in 1999, *Sheetzu Caca Poopoo: My Kind of Dog* in 2006, *When You Need a Lift: But Don't Want to Eat Chocholate, Pay a Shrink or Drink a Bottle of Gin* in 2007 and *Sheetzucacapoopoo 2: Max Goes to the Dogs* in 2009.

She has also received numerous award nominations, in 2010, she was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for "Excellence in Media" (but lost to *The Oprah Winfrey Show*). As co-hostess on *The View*, she along with her fellow co-hostesses have been nominated several times in the "Outstanding Talk Show Host" category. Numerous nominations but only one win in 2009 as Behar won the award with Whoopi Goldberg, Barbara Walters, Sherri Shepherd & Elisabeth Hasselbeck (*The View* has won several other Daytime Emmys in the past, including one for "Outstanding Talk Show" in 2003).