The View’s Joy Behar was called into a meeting with bosses after she ‘crossed the line’ when she exposed cohost Sara Haines’ secret lesbian romance live on air.
The somewhat controversial host, 82, addressed the brief same-sex fling that Haines, 47, had in college while her parents were sat in the audience for Wednesday’s show.
Behar interrupted cohost Whoopi Goldberg, 68, to ask if Haines was going to discuss the romance with her parents on their upcoming appearance on the program's Behind the Table podcast.
She was criticized by her cohosts for ‘embarrassing’ Haines and was pulled up by bosses who told her the comment was ‘not okay.’
‘Joy was blasted by her cohosts and higher-ups for her on air comment about Sara Haines’ lesbian romance,’ an insider told DailyMail.com. ‘She crossed the line in terms of relaying something that was told to her off-air.
The View ’s Joy Behar was called into a meeting with bosses after she ‘crossed the line’ when she exposed cohost Sara Haines’ secret lesbian romance live on air, insiders tell DailyMail.com
The somewhat controversial host, 82, addressed the brief same-sex fling that Haines, 47, had in college while her parents were sat in the audience
‘She also crossed the line morally with her conservative parents in the audience.
‘Joy has no filter most days, but this is absolutely not okay and the higher-ups have spoken to her.’
They continued: ‘Joy has apologized to her but that does not make it right. There are some things that the viewers do not need to know and Joy embarrassing Sara was unprofessional.’
The outburst occurred as Goldberg was plugging the podcast during the end of Wednesday’s show.
'I have to ask her a question,' Behar interrupted as she turned to Haines. 'Are you going to bring up that lesbian relationship you said you had back at Smith [College]?'
Haines started laughing while their other cohosts reacted in shock.
When the camera cut to Haines' parents, her father's mouth dropped and her mother was smiling.
'Dad, earmuffs! Earmuffs!' Haines said as she mimed with her hands over her ears.
When the camera cut to Haines' parents, her father's mouth dropped and her mother was clearly taken aback
'That was off-air that she told us that,' Alyssa Farah Griffin reminded Behar.
Sunny Hostin then quipped: 'Now it's on-air.'
Haines made light of the awkward situation and joked: 'It's a good thing my dad doesn't always watch... But now he does.'
Goldberg added: 'Now he will.'
A separate source told DailyMail.com: ‘This was something that Sara had shared with the audience off air one week prior, which is why Joy said it so freely.'
Haines grew up in an 'extremely conservative' household and attended a left-leaning women's liberal arts college in Northampton, Massachusetts.
She married lawyer Max Shifrin in 2014. The longtime couple share children Alec, eight, Sandra, six, and Caleb, five.
She has been an on-and-off co-host ever since she joined The View in 2016.
Haines has been married to lawyer Max Shifrin for a decade and the longtime couple share children Alec, eight, Sandra, six, and Caleb, five (pictured April 2015 in New York City)
Behar, who is worth an estimated $30million, has been a fixture on the daytime panel since 1997, bar a brief pause between 2013 and 2015.
She famously doesn’t hold back and previously accused Haines of being a secret 'lesbian' when the married mother-of-three revealed that she has visited Cubbyhole - a lesbian bar in Manhattan.
'She's a closet lipstick lesbian,' she said on an episode back in June.
She also opened up about her own views on 'getting it on' with a woman.
Asked if she has ever had relations with a 'lady,' she replied: 'No, but someday I will... I'll do it in my 90s!'
The View airs weekdays on ABC at 11 am ET