Meghan McCain Says 'There's Not a Chance in Hell' She Will Return to 'The View'

Meghan McCain has embarked on an exciting political journey with her brand new podcast Citizen McCain. While promoting her podcast with Astra in the Page Six studio, the former The View co-host revealed that she does not have plans to return to the popular ABC daytime talk show.

McCain said “There’s not a chance in hell” producers would ask her to return, and she would refuse in both cases. “I’ve had kids since then,” she said. “I like my life right now and I feel like it’s taken me a long time to sort of get to a place where people are seeing me as more serious.” 

“I think it’s because I’m still working and a mom of two,” McCain, who is married to Ben Domenech and shares daughters Clover, 1, and Liberty Sage, 3, with him, continued. As per EW, McCain labeled the show as toxic while leaving it permanently in 2021. She had joined the panel in 2017, but later quit the show after an intense on-air argument with co-host Joy Behar. In her memoir, Bad Republican, the political commentator revealed that on January 5, the day she returned from maternity leave, she decided to part ways with the show. In September 2020, she gave birth to her daughter Liberty, and she was experiencing extreme anxiety following her delivery. She had unreasonable worries that her daughter would be abducted or harmed, and she was afraid to appear on television ever again. 

During a political debate, McCain jokingly told Behar that she must have missed her when she was gone. Behar scowled and remarked, “I did not miss you,” and added. “Zero!” McCain claimed to have cried during the commercial and to have puked in her office owing to a panic attack following the conclusion of the show. Given how toxic the job had become for her, she felt she couldn't continue hosting it. “I don’t talk to any of the main co-hosts that I was with, but I still do have friends, that work on the show and people that I made relationships with,” she said. “But I never want to say who because I don’t want them to get bullied for still being my friend. Like, I don’t want them to be publicly or privately bullied...”

McCain shared that although her relationships with the present co-hosts have strained since her departure, she has unexpectedly become close to some of the ex-hosts. She revealed that one of those friends will be appearing on her new podcast, Citizen McCain. “I have some interesting relationships with co-hosts that were on the show that weren’t on my seasons — I guess I can break this here — like, Rosie O’Donnell is coming on my podcast soon. So, I mean, please don’t cancel now that I’ve announced it,” she said. “But I have relationships. I love Jenny McCarthy. She’s always so supportive. She’s amazing,” McCain added. “Elisabeth Hasselbeck. I have her number on my phone. It’s kind of a weird club. Like, it’s...like a weird thing to be a part of a weird TV history.”