The View host Whoopi Goldberg reportedly told former host Abby Huntsman that she was making “the best decision you’ll make in your career” when she quit the show.
Huntsman, who left the show in January, ended her stint on The View because of the “constant dysfunction,” according to the new book Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of The View. “In interviews with more than ten current and former staff on the show, they confirmed the portrait of a talk show hobbled by constant dysfunction,” an excerpt of the book recounts.
The former host had “multiple conversations with ABC about the toxicity at the root of the show” before she quit. Another conversation she had was with Goldberg, who praised her decision to quit the show over its culture — though another source disputes the claim.
Before she left, producers at ABC approached her trying to get her to tamp down gossip about the show’s “toxic culture.” A show insider said the host refused the producers’ request to deny on-air a report that she was treated “like shit.”
“She’s felt for a while that things had to change,” one show insider said. “ABC treated Abby like shit, but everyone on the show gets treated like shit.”
Huntsman left to join her father Jon Huntsman on the campaign trail as he runs to be governor of Utah.
