The 83-year-old returned to the Hot Topics table for the first time since Jan. 23, after an illness left her unable to sit with the cohosts.

Joy Behar returns to *The View *after missing 6 episodes in a row

The 83-year-old returned to the Hot Topics table for the first time since Jan. 23, after an illness left her unable to sit with the cohosts.

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February 3, 2026 11:20 a.m. ET

Joy Behar on 'The View'. Credit:

Joy Behar's lengthy absence from *The View* has come to an end, as the 83-year-old cohost returned Tuesday to the talk show after missing six consecutive episodes — and she gave a health update explaining why she wasn't present since the Jan. 23 broadcast.

The longtime panelist and comedian rejoined her colleagues Tuesday morning, walking out to sit with them at the Hot Topics table for the first time in 11 days — for a special baby shower installment honoring the upcoming birth of cohost Alyssa Farah Griffin's first child.

The cohosts — including Behar — sat at the table at the opening of the episode, while Griffin walked out to join the already seated panelists. They did not, at least at the top of the episode, address Behar's return.

Joy Behar in New York City in June 2025.

Jamie McCarthy/Getty

Last week, moderator Whoopi Goldberg lightly referenced Behar's absence. "We want to let you know Joy is out, she's not feeling well, so we want her to feel better and get her behind back here," Goldberg said at the time, though she didn't reveal further details.

** reached out to a representative for *The View* for more information on Behar's extended absence.**

Though Behar missed six episodes, two of them were pre-scheduled absences, as she and moderator Whoopi Goldberg typically trade off days between the two. Behar usually has Mondays off, while Goldberg sits out for Friday's telecasts. Ana Navarro then fills in for both of them.

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Behar's recent six-episode absence is the longest she's gone without sitting at the Hot Topics table in recent years, though she did sit out for four episodes of *The View *in November of last year.

When she returned later that month, the comedian revealed that an incident with a tech device led to her extended absence.

"I dropped my iPad on my foot and I broke my toe," Behar revealed at the time, hoisting her foot up so the audience could see her injury. "And they put the toes together because it's broken, and it's very, very, very painful. I do not recommend you dropping anything on your toes."

'The View' cohost Joy Behar.

ABC/JEFF LIPSKY

In Behar's absence, the cohosts have addressed a wide range of political and pop culture topics, ranging from Bad Bunny making Grammys history as the first artist to win Album of the Year with a Spanish-language album, to the arrest of journalist Don Lemon on federal charges related to an anti-ICE protest he covered in Minnesota.

Cohost Sara Haines also recently broke down in tears on the show's* Behind the Table* podcast over the onslaught of difficult world news, admitting that it feels like she sometimes doesn't "have a safe space" from grim news while working as a panelist on the show.

*The View* airs weekdays on ABC.

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