Raven- Symoné Claims She Was “Catfished” When Asked To Join “The View”

Former hosts of The View Raven- Symoné and Candace Cameron Bure both claim the way they were asked to appear on the talk show didn’t align with their actual experiences.

During a recent episode of The View: Behind the Table, the ABC News special podcast focused on the talk show, and both former co-hosts shared how the show’s political bend complicated their desires to stay a part of it.

Symoné said when she was pitched the opportunity to join, she was under the impression it would be different than what she actually encountered—a show heavy on politics. She likened it to a “catfishing” situation.

“I got catfished,” Symoné said. “I feel like I just got catfished. I thought I was going on a show, like Candace, where it was pop culture and fun and exciting and I got catfished, and I learned a good lesson.”

Bure, who says she is not a political person, shares the same sentiments. She said she was “pitched a completely different direction” than the show actually went to.

“I said, ‘Politics is not, it’s not my bag. I’ve never spoken publicly about politics. I don’t even come from a political family, meaning I didn’t grow up speaking about politics,'” she explained. “So they had told me, ‘We’re going so much lighter,’ a lot more would be evergreen. We want to talk more about family and sex and life, so I was like, ‘Absolutely, 100 percent, I’m on board.’ And then it all changed when Trump entered the race.”

In the past, Bure cited the extensive travel and scheduling conflicts as her reason for leaving. However, during the podcast, she added that the emotional stress she endured from being on the show was also a reason.

Bure added that she felt like everyone “was respectful for the most part,” but the whole ordeal made her sick to her stomach, and she spent “many mornings” crying before the show. It was the election of Donald Trump that played a significant part in her departure.

“As soon as Donald Trump won that election, I was like, this has got to go because I could not — I did not want to be the punching bag for the next four years in that conservative seat,” Bure explained. “I just didn’t want to. And it wasn’t worth it to me. It wasn’t worth my mental health, which was already suffering, so it was a very easy decision.”

Symoné, on the other hand, felt the pressure from being the only LGBTQ member on the panel and having to serve as the single face of that community. “The only reason I really got through a lot of the stuff that I did get through was because of Whoopi [Goldberg] and the producers as well,” she explained. “There is something amazing about behind the scenes of The View that kind of puts the salve over all the BS that’s going on on-camera that made it tolerable to stay as long as we did.”