NEW YORK, N.Y. — Meghan McCain is leaving “The View” after serving as a co-host of the talk show for nearly four years.
The conservative panelist announced her departure during the ABC show on Thursday, saying it will be her last season.
.@MeghanMcCain announces her departure from @TheView at the end of the show’s season, saying “this was not an easy decision.”
“I’m just eternally grateful to have had this opportunity here so, seriously, thank you from the absolute bottom of my heart.” https://t.co/ZiP1UTs2xu pic.twitter.com/eLuEAJ4KLT
— The View (@TheView) July 1, 2021
“I will be here through the end of July to finish out the season with all of you, which I am grateful for,” said McCain. “This was not an easy decision. It took a lot of thought and counsel and prayer and talking to my family and my close friends.”
Like many people, McCain said the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way she looked at the world and how she wants to live her life.
McCain, who welcomed her first child earlier this year, said she relocated from New York to the Washington, D.C.-area when the COVID-19 crisis began last year and she doesn’t want to leave her life there.
Despite regularly getting into heated debates with her more liberal co-hosts, McCain had only good things to say about the show, which she joined in 2017.
“On a professional note, this show is one of the hands-down greatest, most exhilarating, wonderful privileges of my entire life and I have had so many amazing experiences in my life, and this is definitely one of the top,” said McCain. “It is a privilege to work alongside such strong, brilliant, intelligent, incredible broadcasters like the four of you. You are the most talented women on all of television, hands down, and it has been so incredible to do this with you.”
McCain said she didn’t want to join the show initially and it was her father, late Sen. John McCain, who encouraged her to do so.
“Before I came on to this show, I didn’t want to join this show, as I think I have talked about in the past. It was my dad who encouraged me to do it,” said McCain. “He said I could never give up an opportunity to work on such an iconic show and to work with Whoopi Goldberg and he was right. It was one of the last things he told me to do before he died.”
