Abby Huntsman made her big comeback on The View Monday morning after slamming the ABC talk show’s “toxic culture.”
The former Fox & Friends host (and daughter of 2012 Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, Jr.) returned to join fellow hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Sara Haines, Ana Navarro, and Sunny Hostin. Huntsman was a fixture on the show for two years until her departure in 2020.
Huntsman, 39, who was a fixture on the show for two years until her departure in 2020, was the latest conservative voice to fill in for Alyssa Farah Griffin during her maternity leave.
“It’s like no time has passed. It’s weird sitting here, but congratulations to Alyssa. All the joy in the world,” she said in her first episode back. “Remember, I had my twins on the show. We were pregnant together, Sara, and there’s something so special to having a baby on the show, because you go through it together.”
The television personality quit The View to become senior advisor for her father in his ultimately unsuccessful bid to become governor of Utah for the second time.
At the time, her departure was sullied by drama after Huntsman slammed the show’s culture and became entangled in a backstage feud with her fellow View host and friend, Meghan McCain.
In a 2021 episode of her podcast I Wish Somebody Told Me, Huntsman condemned the long-running talk show’s environment. She said the “executives in charge” had created a culture that “was all about money and the tabloids.”
“You would see people act in ways that were not OK, that was very much part of the toxic environment of The View, and here we were going on the air criticizing others for toxic culture,” Huntsman added, saying that leaving the set had allowed her to be “living again.”
“When I was walking out of the building that day, I was living again,” she shared. “I could breathe and feel myself breathing. I was present, and I hadn’t been present for the almost two years I was there.”
That same year, Huntsman told People that leaving the show was “the best decision” she could have made.
Huntsman and McCain seemingly publicly patched things up when Huntsman made an on-air announcement about her decision to leave the show. She reportedly had warm goodbyes with the other panelists, telling her co-hosts before leaving, “I love all of you here.” She emphasized her feelings toward her colleagues in her 2020 statement, saying, “ABC is my family from the beginning and will probably always be in my family.”
Huntsman, a Republican, joined the table for Monday’s episode, with guest Senator Cory Booker. During a separate discussion, the panel united in slamming President Donald Trump’s remarks celebrating the death of ex-FBI director Robert Mueller.
“For Donald Trump, this is when he hits rock bottom,” Huntsman said. “This is where he can’t help himself and gets himself in trouble. It’s indefensible.”
The conservative commentator said that she has become more passionate about her country and in the fight to maintain free speech.
“It’s like I’m more passionate, more emotional, and more concerned about my country, living outside of doing this every day,” she told her co-hosts. “And there are a lot of things I’m concerned about, but one of them has been our free media and how that’s been threatened in more ways lately than ever before. And so I sit at this table not taking it for granted.”
This week’s gig isn’t Huntsman’s first return to the show. She acted as a guest host a few times, appearing in 2021 and again in 2024, when she filled in for missing co-hosts in a special appearance. She was welcomed back warmly by her former colleagues.
The View has invited several MAGA-adjacent, conservative voices to fill Griffin’s seat, including Savannah Chrisley and Elisabeth Hasselbeck.
