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Don’t expect Jenny McCarthy to return to The View anytime soon.
McCarthy, 53, joined the daytime talk show in 2013 following a cast shake-up that included the departures of Joy Behar (who later returned) and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. However, her tenure was short-lived as she departed the following year.
Asked if she’d ever consider a return on Tuesday’s episode of The Katie Miller Podcast, McCarthy said that while she’s been asked back for reunion specials, she has no intention to retake her place at the roundtable.
“Over my dead body,” she quipped.
Opening up more about her time on the show, McCarthy recalled being brought in alongside co-hosts Barbara Walters, Whoopi Goldberg, and Sherri Shepherd because the show was “too polarizing” at the time. She said she thought her job was to discuss reality TV and other “fluffy” topics, avoiding political chat.
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Jenny McCarthy was a co-host on ‘The View’ from 2013 to 2014 (ABC)
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Jenny McCarthy has opened up about her time on ‘The View’ (Getty)
“Well, that lasted a week,” she said. “Back then, I didn’t consider myself to be a political person, which is why I thought I was perfect for the job.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, what am I going to do?’” she recalled. “Today, we’re going to be discussing the hostage situation and whether the United States government should pay the ransom or not. And I was like, ‘What?’ I’m like, ‘I just know who won on Dancing With the Stars.’
“Getting through that year was really difficult.”
McCarthy admitted to being “more political now, in terms of having opinions, because of — thank God — our latest administration has helped so much,” she said, referring to President Donald Trump.
McCarthy has been a vocal supporter of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s controversial Secretary of Health and Human Services. She has faced significant criticism in the past for promoting the disproven idea that vaccines cause autism, and said that chelation therapy, a quack remedy, helped cure her son of autism.
The actor previously spoke to Andy Cohen about her firing from the show in July 2025.
During an appearance on SiriusXM’s Radio Andy, McCarthy recalled the “massacre” that resulted in her and Shepard being let go, along with several of the show’s producers.
“Sherri came crying into my dressing room saying, ‘I was just let go,’” she recalled. “They got rid of a bunch of people.”
Still, McCarthy said the entirety of the experience drew her and Shepard closer.
“We could be sisters,” she told Cohen at the time. “Sherri and I had each other’s backs. We would cry on each other’s shoulders. We would have each other’s backs if we were being attacked out there.
“We had bruises on our knees from grabbing each other under the table. Like, ‘It’s OK. It’s OK. It’s OK. Hold on tight.’”
Currently, The View features co-hosts Goldberg and Behar, as well as Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines, Alyssa Farah Griffin and Ana Navarro.