Moms of The View - An Amazing All-Star Cast of Five

by Janis Brett Elspas
MommyBlogExpert

Inspiration for this post, comes from being a The View Brand Ambassador and a mom 

Who knows which of The View co-hosts are moms?  Here's an even more challenging trivia question for you: who is the only grandmother among the popular midday talk show's co-hosts?  The answers might surprise you.

Like many other WAHMs (work at home moms) -- and also SAHMs (stay at home moms) -- out in TV land, I absolutely love The View because of it's all-female cast, thought-provoking topics, and high profile and sometimes controversial guests, like Nadya Suleman, the octuplet unmarried mother who now has a total of 14 kids.  See the related Octomom post I wrote about that The View episode here.

These "Who is a mom and grandmother" questions intrigued me, so I did some fact checking.  First, I read through all the co-hosts' bios on the official The View site to see who among them might share the title of mom.  Poring over these work-related credentials, I found each woman to be an accomplished professional in her own right.  But I wanted to learn more about them to see why each has shown a tendency toward giving motherly advice to various  guests they've hosted on the the show, especially lately.

As I went through each of their stories, I noticed that only three of the five ladies' official show resumes even mention that they are mothers (Barbara Walters, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, and Sherri Shepherd).  Of those three bios, this minor mother fact is noted on the very last line of each profile, almost as if it was an afterthought.  Even more pointedly, there is no mention of children at all in either Whoopi Goldberg's or Joy Behar's The View biographies, not to mention the fact that each is an author of several kids' books.  The next think I knew, I was thinking wouldn't that be amazing if all the show's regulars turned out to be mommies just like I am.  A visit to several more reliable sources such as Wikipedia and Imdb later, I hit gold, confirming that both of the latter women were moms, too.

Since other moms that love the show as much (or maybe even more) than I do might be just as fascinated as I am by these all these maternal discoveries, here's my compilation of The View - Moms Like Us

Barbara Walters looks incredibly stunning for an 80 year-old (born the same year as my mom).  She is currently single, having been married three times (to Robert Henry Katz, Lee Guber, and Merv Adelson) and has a daughter Jacqueline Guber Danforth with Guber whom they adopted shortly after birth.  Jackie and her husband run a program for troubled teens, but have no children of their own. This beautiful photo shows Walters with Jackie when she was a little girl in the 70s.

Whoopi Goldberg, is the only grandma among The View host moms even though she is the middle child age-wise on the cast.  She was born Caryn Elaine Johnson and is just a year older than I am -- though she seems ages wiser than other baby boomers like me.  Whoopi was raised by a single mother in New York and has been married three times (to Alvin Martin, David Claessen, and Lyle Trachtenberg).  She has one daughter, Alexandra, born in 1973 and fathered by her first husband Alvin.  The View's official moderator, Whoopi has two grandchildren, including a granddaughter (born in 1989) and a grandson (born in 1995).

Joy Behar, who is currently single and living with domestic partner Steve Janowitz, is the mother of one daughter, Eve, born to her and ex-hubbie Joseph Behar.  Joy (which is short for her birth name Josephina) was already in high school by the time I was born, so even though she is more than 10 years older than I am, I was tickled *pink and *green to find out that she is a member of Delta Zeta, the same sorority I joined in college.  *the official colors of our sorority, DZ

Sherri Shepherd, was born in the hey day of the 60s, and is the second youngest The View gal pal.  A divorced and currently single mom, she has a four year-old son, Jeffrey Charles Tarpley (with ex-husband Jeff Tarpley).  She also has her own series, Sherri, which premiered on Lifetime in October 2009, and is loosely based on her own life.  According to the very last line on the homepage of Sherri's official website, she spends her free time with her young son. 

Elisabeth Hasselbeck, age 32, may be the baby of The View onscreen mothers but she is also the only one who is not the parent of an only child and the only cast member who is currently married.  Her youngest child was born last year, so she is the only co-host with a baby at home right now.  Elisabeth is married to Tim Hasselbeck, a former pro football quarterback now ESPN NFL Analyst.  Together they have three children under the age of 5,  Grace (2005), Taylor (2007), and Isaiah (2009).

On behalf of the millions of moms who watch the show,  it's an amazing feeling to share the common bond of motherhood with every member of the cast.  Fellow mom The View enthusiasts--we are in great company, don't you think?  How cool is that?

FTC Disclosure:  Janis Brett Elspas, MommyBlogExpert, is a participant in a Mom Central campaign for ABC Daytime and will receive a tote bag or other The View branded items to facilitate my review.  See detailed FTC Disclosure that appears at the bottom of MommyBlogExpert's main page and at the bottom of every individual post on this blog, including this one.