PHOTOS5 Shocking Revelations From Meghan McCain's New Book 'Bad Republican': Why She Left 'The View,' Who She Voted For, Postpartum Anxiety & More
Oct. 19 2021, Published 12:16 p.m. ET
The truth comes out. Meghan McCain’s upcoming memoir Bad Republican will reportedly uncover all of the secrets behind the former talk show host’s shocking exit from The View.
After leaving the ABC hit show back in July, McCain left viewers dying to know the real reasons behind her unexpected exit — and now she is finally dishing the dirt of what really happened.
But that’s not all she covers in her new book. The TV personality also drops major bombshells regarding the death of her father, her difficult journey to motherhood and her surprising political complexities.
The audio-only memoir is described as “the deeply personal narrative detailing McCain’s experience as the daughter of an American icon, a conservative rebel and a new mother,” according to the Audible website.
Bad Republican is scheduled for release on Audible on Thursday, October 21.
Scroll through to check out the most shocking secrets McCain spills in her juicy new tell-all.
She Called 'The View' Set 'Toxic'
When McCain announced that she would be leaving the show over the summer, she left out the nitty-gritty about her reasons for doing so.
Now, she is revealing that it was the culture on set of The View — and the tension between the co-hosts — that caused her to finally walk away.
In an excerpt of her book from Variety, McCain claimed that “there’s stuff that happens on ‘The View’ that shouldn’t be allowed,” including that the “atmosphere” of the show “breeds drama.”
“My take on the show is that working at ‘The View’ brings out the worst in people. I believe that all the women and the staff are working under conditions where the culture is so f*cked up, it feels like quicksand,” she wrote.
She also revealed that there is “no high-level oversight of the show from the network,” and that HR reports at ABC “seem to fall on deaf ears.”
“As a result,” she explained, “people — both on camera and off — feel empowered to act however they like, and do whatever they want. In my four years there, I was the target of plenty of shade — too much to even begin to recount — and then I also experienced more toxic, direct and purposeful hostility.”
She Didn't Vote For Donald Trump
While McCain was known on The View for being the only conservative voice on the show, she didn’t have any feelings of devotion to the Republican candidate in the 2020 Presidential Election.
The TV personality had hard feelings for Donald Trump when he was running against President Joe Biden because of his numerous disses to her late father, John McCain.
Trump previously said that he was “never a fan” of the Republican senator — who passed away in 2018 — and even ridiculed McCain’s capture during the Vietnam War.
“He’s a war hero because he was captured,” Trump said at the time, per BBC News. “I like people that weren’t captured.”
Despite butting heads with her cohosts over her historically conservative views, McCain admitted in her upcoming book that she didn’t vote for the Republican candidate in November 2020.
“As the county got worse under Trump, the treatment from Whoopi [Goldberg], Joy [Behar] and some of the staff grew meaner and less forgiving,” she said. “It was as if I had become an avatar for everything they hated about the president. It felt like the co-hosts and staff only knew one Republican — me — and took out all their anger on me, even though I didn’t even vote for Trump.”
- 'Conservative Rebel' Meghan McCain Will Detail Her 'The View' Exit In Audio-Only Memoir 'Bad Republican'
- Meghan McCain Lands Writing Job Two Months After 'The View' Exit, Says She Wants To Share Her Conservative Views 'Without Fear Of Favor' After Butting Heads With Cohosts
- Meghan McCain Focusing On 'Meaningful And Impactful' Work Following 'The View' Exit: 'I Don't Miss It At All'
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She Had Severe Postpartum Anxiety
Something that readers may not be expecting in McCain’s new book is her struggle with postpartum anxiety.
After giving birth to her baby girl, Liberty, in September 2020, McCain reportedly suffered from “severe postpartum anxiety,” which she claimed includes “excessive worrying, racing thoughts and feelings of dread,” that are often irrational.
She even spilled that she debated hiring “armed bodyguards” outside of her home due to fears that her baby would be kidnapped.
McCain also claimed she had a hard time letting anyone else hold her baby, and that she believed that someone would try to hurt Liberty because of their hatred for the talk show host.
“As I was dealing with my own emotions, I couldn’t also navigate the idea that I was hated and felt hated at a toxic work environment,” a feeling that she said her anxiety made worse. “And because of that, I was worried even more that someone would steal or kidnap my child — as a way of hurting me. It wasn’t rational; I know that. But it was the medical diagnosis I was going through."
Joy Behar Pushed Her Over The Edge
Perhaps the biggest bombshell from McCain's book is the fact that Behar played a big role in her choice to leave the show.
She explained in the memoir that after she returned from maternity leave — while she was struggling with postpartum anxiety — she “assumed'' her cohosts had missed her, which she later found out was not the case.
McCain detailed an incident on her second day back, when she was adjusting to a new schedule in between breast-pumping, and she and Behar started going at it.
“To make light of things and to ease the tension, I said, ‘Joy you missed me so much when I was on maternity leave! You missed fighting with me!,” which Behar responded to by telling her she didn’t miss the new mom at all.
“It felt like I’d been slapped,” McCain recalled. “She yelled out at me sharp and intensely and I believed her. Now, I know I’m not always a perfect angel, but I would never speak to any woman that way who had just returned after giving birth.”
She remembered bursting into tears after they cut to commercial, telling producers while her breasts leaked lactation that she wouldn’t have come back if she wasn’t wanted there.
“The experience of crying and leaking and trying to pull it together in seconds so I could go back on-air with women who appeared to hate me was an intensely heartbreaking experience," she recalled. "I can’t explain it further other than I felt like in that moment I took a look at my life outside of myself and I thought clearly — this shIt isn’t worth this."
Her Father Told Her To Take The Gig At 'The View'
While McCain described her time on The View as “isolating,” she also claims that it wasn’t all bad. She even revealed that taking the job at ABC was her late father’s idea.
“I don’t think he was wrong,” she said in the memoir. “But I think he would have wanted me to go now.”
At the time she was debating leaving the show, she recalled hearing Abba’s “Take a Chance on Me” playing in a coffee shop, which was one of her dad’s favorite bands.
“It was a sign,” she wrote. “I was making the right decision.”
