NEWS'The View' Hosts Weigh in on Jenny Mollen's Controversial Post With Her 12-Year-Old Son

Most of 'The View' cast defended the actress.
June 3 2026, Published 5:06 p.m. ET
The costars of The View weighed in on Jenny Mollen's viral post that divided the internet during the Wednesday, June 2, episode of the talk show.
However, Whoopi Goldberg admitted she didn't "understand" the situation at hand, so she read straight from the teleprompter to introduce the topic, in which Mollen was met with backlash for embracing her son, 12, on a bed and captioning the shot, "Your eldest son will be the most toxic guy you ever date."
'Leave Her Alone'

Guest co-host Kara Swisher blamed the backlash over Jenny Mollen's photo on cancel culture.
Guest host Kara Swisher, who's filling in for Joy Behar, didn't mind the upload, noting society just always feels the need "to dunk on everyone for everything they do."
"Leave her alone," she suggested. "We just said, mind your own business and you won’t be minding mine. Now, she did put it out on public media, essentially. Look, she’s hugging her son. So what? I hug my kids, my boys, all the time."
Jenny Mollen Is 'Deliberately Provocative'

'Your eldest son will be the most toxic guy you ever date,' the actress captioned photos hugging her son.
Sara Haines also came to the "endearing" actress' defense, noting she's always been "deliberately provocative."
"She’s trying to get your attention. She wrote an essay specifically about moms and sons just a couple weeks ago, and it was about letting go," Haines explained. "How she now understood why her mother-in-law may have looked at her a certain way because she was letting go of her baby boy. She was addressing the universal, perennial truth that if you’re a good parent, you’ll raise them to leave you."
“So that was an attention-getting title,” she added of the caption. “This is Jenny Mollen being Jenny Mollen.”
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Sara Haines brushed off the drama, insisting Jenny Mollen was 'trying to get your attention.'
The situation hit home for Alyssa Farah Griffin since she just gave birth to her first child, son Justin, as she admitted she's unsure how often she will post photos of her baby on social media.
Griffin noted that eventually, her son will grow up and have his own opinions on whether he wants his face online.
"It’s no judgment of her, but I think parents should weigh that because they’re individuals in their own right," the new mom spilled.

Whoopi Goldberg didn't 'understand' the scandal.
Sunny Hostin also defended the Girls alum.
"I adore my son. Everybody knows that," she stated. "And I didn’t have a problem with the picture at all. I mean, if that were a mother hugging her daughter, would the reaction have been the same?"
Going into depth about the topic didn't prompt a response from Goldberg, who once again declared, "This explained nothing to me. I still don’t understand it."
Jenny Mollen Deleted the Caption

The mother-of-two deleted her caption but kept the photos up.
After critics blasted Mollen for the May 25 upload, she deleted the caption but kept the pictures up. There's now a "community note" on the post clarifying the change.


