Jenny McCarthy Bashes Whoopi Goldberg’s “Addiction to Control” on ‘The View’

Jenny McCarthy only co-hosted The View for one season in 2013, but she still has plenty to say about her time on the ABC morning show. In a new excerpt from Ramin Setoodeh’s “Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of ‘The View'” published on Vulture, McCarthy recounted her “miserable” experience working with co-hosts Barbara Walters and Whoopi Goldberg. According to the current Masked Singer panelist, Walters was verbally abusive and starting to lose her memory during her time on the show, while Goldberg spent each day fighting to secure her position as moderator — a role McCarthy believes enabled Goldberg’s “addiction to controlling people’s thoughts, their words, the room … all of it and everybody.”

“Every day I went home and I was miserable,” McCarthy told Setoodeh. “It really was the most miserable I’ve been on a job in my 25 years of show business.” She recounted stories of Walters, then 83 years old, screaming at her about her anti-vaccine stance — she compared the moment to the 1981 film Mommie Dearest — forgetting co-hosts’ names, ordering her to change clothes repeatedly, and even forcing her to flush a bloody tampon that someone had left floating in the toilet. “Imagine a woman like Barbara Walters,” said McCarthy. “It’s her last year and she doesn’t want to leave. Think about that. And I’m the new bitch there.”

Throughout her time on The View, Walters and Goldberg would often get into it across the table. “There was a war between Barbara and Whoopi about Barbara wanting to moderate,” said McCarthy. Goldberg repeatedly denied Walters’ requests to moderate, and before long, the 83-year-old host became obsessed with tearing down her rival. As tension increased, Walters frequently pointed out Goldberg’s on-air mistakes to producers, and Goldberg would interrupt her (and the other co-hosts) to assert her dominance.

“People don’t understand. Whoopi can knock over anyone in a debate,” said McCarthy. “Her voice is strong not only in meaning but also in sound. I was able to get a point out in three words —  like ‘I don’t agree’ — and that’s all I would be able to say. I would be stepped on or interrupted.” She continued, “To me, Whoopi had an addiction to controlling people’s thoughts, their words, the room, the table, your feeling, your mood. She had an addiction to controlling all of it and everybody.”

Ultimately, McCarthy quit at the end of Season 17. Walters also left at that time: her last episode aired in May 2014. Despite their earlier issues, McCarthy says she has no ill will towards Walters. “She kept saying backstage, ‘I don’t want to go. I don’t want to leave,'” she recalled of Walters’ final days. “I had zero hard feelings. I loved her like a grandma. She didn’t know any better.” However, that same sentiment doesn’t extend to Goldberg, who refused to allow Walters to take the lead even in her final days on The View. Said McCarthy, “Whoopi knew better.”

You can read the entire excerpt from “Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of ‘The View'” on Vulture. Setoodeh’s book hits shelves on April 2.

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