JOY RETURNS

‘The View’ Host Reveals Freak iPad Injury That Kept Her Off Air

The culprit was not a political feud, nor a scheduling shake-up, but an iPad with a vendetta.

Joy Behar finally explained why she vanished from The View for most of the week.

The 83-year-old co-host returned to the table on Friday and told viewers she’d been sidelined after “dropping an iPad” on her foot and breaking a toe, an injury she described as “very, very, very painful.”

“Now, I’ve been off for a few days as you might have noticed,” Behar said, kicking off Friday’s show. “Here’s what happened: I dropped my iPad on my foot and I broke my toe.” She hoisted her foot above the table to show her three middle toes taped together. “What they do is 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.”

JOYLESS

Whoopi Reveals Why ‘The View’ Co-Host Has Been Absent

Amber Brace

Ana Navarro immediately reminded viewers that Sunny Hostin had tried to convince Behar to upgrade to a larger tablet weeks earlier—a suggestion Behar now calls “very sadistic.”

Hostin, joined by her orthopedic surgeon husband Emmanuel, said they’d leapt into action when they heard about the mishap. “I texted Joy, I said, ‘Manny’s having office hours. Would you like him to go to your house to look at your foot?’” she said. That never happened, but Manny did ask for a photo.

Behar, however, insisted in her text back that she had “absolutely” no swelling or bruising.

But Hostin said “when he got that picture, her third toe looked like her big toe.” Behar blamed her ignorance on her home’s “glamour lighting,” which apparently casts flattering shadows and hides black-and-blue disasters.

Behar’s absence stretched across four episodes, from Monday, Nov. 10 through Thursday, Nov. 13. While she doesn’t normally appear on Mondays, co-host Whoopi Goldberg told audiences Tuesday that Behar was “out” and would “hopefully” be back soon. By Wednesday, Goldberg had an update: “She hurt her foot.”

On Thursday, Goldberg repeated the explanation—and noted that Behar still managed to send a celebratory lasagna for Goldberg’s 70th birthday.

The longtime co-host has been a central presence on The View since its 1997 premiere, save for a two-year hiatus between 2013 and 2015. Earlier this year, on the show’s Behind the Table podcast, Behar revealed that her agent in the late ’90s actually told her not to accept the job.

“Do you know that my agent told me not to take it,” she recalled, saying he warned the show wouldn’t pay enough. But Behar said she “knew that it would be a smart show” with Barbara Walters steering it.

See more of our coverage in your search results.

ADD THE DAILY BEAST ON GOOGLE

Leigh KimminsReporter

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.