Sometimes the best thing about a job is the friendships you make at work. It’s nice — if not necessary — to have people who understand what you go through for a good chunk of the waking hours of your day. The recently re-signed ladies of The View certainly seem to know the power of a good work bestie, and that’s why moderator Whoopi Goldberg got a little bit in her feelings on a recent episode of the ABC talk show, after longtime co-host Joy Behar said she was “happy” she was fired from the series in 2013, because all her friends had left.
In discussion about how the pandemic and working remotely has affected people’s ability to have a work best friend, Joy Behar offered her strong opinion to her colleagues on The View. She stated that if she didn’t have friends at work, she did not want to be there anymore. In her words:
I always have friends where I work, and if I don't have friends at the job, I will not keep the job. So, when I was fired last time from this show, people say to me, 'Were you OK with that?' And my answer is, I was happy, because all my friends had left already. So, there was no reason to stay anymore. I mean it.
Joy Behar, who left The View in August 2013 before returning two years later, got a stare-down from Whoopi Goldberg’s end of the table, as the actress faked a quivering lip and milked the audience’s laughs with her pout. Goldberg challenged Behar, saying:
Really? All your friends left? It’s OK. I’m cool.
Joy Behar brushed off the Sister Act star’s faux tears, clarifying to the moderator:
You had just come on, and my backstage friends had left. And I don't like to work when I don't have friends.
Whoopi Goldberg joined as moderator in 2007, replacing Rosie O’Donnell, so the assertion that she’d “just” come on six years earlier is all relative, considering Joy Behar was one of the original co-hosts on the show when it was created by the late Barbara Walters in 1997. She was also surely trying to downplay her comment, as she also said she was talking about the people backstage, who presumably had built a strong friendship with Behar since the earlier days of The View.
Alyssa Farah Griffin jumped to Joy Behar’s defense, explaining to the audience that there are so many people behind the scenes that the audience doesn’t see. They’re the ones who get the real tea, Griffin said, as Behar joked that they’re also the ones who “better keep their mouths shut.” You can watch the full exchange below:
As you can see, Whoopi Goldberg was not actually offended by her co-worker’s remarks (as it’s not like she called her an “old broad”). But Goldberg assured the audience that she and Joy Behar had been friends for a long time and that she was just teasing her.
You can continue to see this group of work best friends on weekday mornings on ABC, and be sure to check out our 2023 TV schedule to see what other premieres are arriving soon.
