Meghan McCain Breaks Down While Recalling 'Humiliating' On-air Moment With Whoopi Goldberg on 'The View'

10/21/2021 12:08 pm EDT

Former The View panelist Meghan McCain recently broke down in an interview while recalling a "humiliating" on-air moment that happened with Whoopi Goldberg. While speaking to Variety about her time on the show, McCain explained that she and the show's moderator were "not close, but warm and friendly." That changed, however after an infamous moment between the two women that left McCain feeling hurt.

"I have a lot of love and affection for her. She was surprised when I left. She yields an unfathomable amount of power in television, in culture. And it felt at a certain point, she didn't want me at the table anymore," McCain said candidly. She then went on to share when it was that she knew things had changed. "It started with the 'Girl, please stop talking!' incident," she recalled. "I remember when it happened almost crying on the show."

Reflecting on the incident, McCain said, "I never wanted to upset her. But I also wanted to be truthful about how I felt about politics and my perspective, and sometimes those two things couldn't co-exist. At a certain point, I made the decision it was more important to be honest than to be liked."

McCain confessed that the moment made her feel "horrible," but gave Goldberg "credit" for apologizing the next day. "I would apologize when I messed up," she continued. "I f—ed up a lot on that show." At this point in the conversation, Variety noted that McCain began to tear up and was overwhelmed with emotion. "I don't know why I'm getting emotional talking about this," she said. 

"A lot of this feels like such a waste," McCain added. "It was humiliating for me, and I'm a serious person. I felt like I was being talked to like I was a child and a brat. And when things go viral on Twitter and people write things, it really does impact you. I felt very lonely."

Finally, McCain said that she still has "love" for Goldberg. "I felt at a certain point she stopped respecting me, and it was hard," the mother of one said. "I don't know why I'm crying so much. I wish things could have been different. I know she had her own dark times. When I was on the show, she almost died of pneumonia. I wish we had better leadership that could have stopped a lot of it."

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