Joy Behar is an 82-year-old comedian, television host, and playwright best known as an original co-host of ABC’s The View since 1997. She won a Daytime Emmy Award in 2009 and debuted her play My First Ex-Husband in 2025. Behar is married to retired teacher Steve Janowitz and has an estimated net worth of $28 million.
Joy Behar: The Career That Started in a Classroom
Joy Behar was born Josephine Victoria Occhiuto on October 7, 1942, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She grew up as an only child in an Italian-American family. Her father drove trucks for Coca-Cola, and her mother worked as a seamstress. The working-class household exposed her to opera, theater, and museums—experiences that shaped her refined taste and quick wit.
After earning a Bachelor’s degree in sociology from Queens College in 1964 and a Master’s in English education from Stony Brook University in 1966, Behar taught English at Lindenhurst Senior High School in New York. She spent nearly a decade in the classroom during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Though she never loved teaching, it paid the bills while she figured out her next move.
Everything changed in 1979 when Behar nearly died from an ectopic pregnancy. The health scare at age 37 forced her to confront her mortality and chase her real dream: comedy. She quit teaching and took a receptionist job at Good Morning America, hoping to get a foot in the door. By night, she performed stand-up routines at small comedy clubs across New York City.
Building a Comedy Career Without a Mentor
Behar didn’t have connections or a mentor when she started. She learned by doing, bombing on stage, and gradually refining her material. Her dry humor and relatable stories about marriage, family, and aging resonated with audiences. By the mid-1980s, she was a regular at major comedy clubs like Caroline’s and Catch a Rising Star.
In 1987, she got her first big break: hosting Way Off Broadway on Lifetime Television. The variety talk show lasted one season, but opened doors. She landed small roles in films including This Is My Life (1992) and Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993), worked with Woody Allen, and appeared in NBC’s Baby Boom sitcom. Throughout the early 1990s, she balanced comedy club gigs with acting roles and a talk-radio show on WABC in New York.
The hard work paid off. In 1997, Barbara Walters selected Behar as one of the original panelists for a new ABC daytime talk show called The View. She was 54 years old.
The View: Nearly Three Decades at the Table
When The View premiered in August 1997, Behar initially filled in when Walters was absent. Viewers loved her blunt questions, sharp comebacks, and willingness to say what everyone else was thinking. She quickly became a permanent co-host.
Behar’s role on The View established her as a daytime television staple. She asked celebrities the uncomfortable questions others avoided, presented stand-up comedians in a segment called “Joy’s Comedy Corner,” and voiced the post-menopausal woman’s perspective—a demographic largely ignored in media. Her direct style and quick wit made her a favorite among baby boomer viewers.
In August 2009, Behar and her fellow co-hosts won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host after more than a decade of nominations. The recognition validated years of live television, navigating controversial topics, and keeping audiences engaged five days a week.
But in March 2013, Behar announced she was leaving The View at the end of that season after 16 years. She told Deadline, “It seemed like the right time. You reach a point when you say to yourself, ‘Do I want to keep doing this?’ There are other things on my plate I want to do—I’ve been writing a play, I’ve been neglecting my stand-up.”
Retirement didn’t suit her. After guest appearances throughout 2014 and 2015, ABC announced in August 2015 that Behar would return as a regular co-host. She joked, “Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in.” She’s remained at the table ever since, currently co-hosting Season 29 alongside Whoopi Goldberg and making her the longest-tenured host in the show’s history.
Beyond The View: Multiple Talk Shows and Projects
While co-hosting The View, Behar launched multiple solo projects. In 2009, she began hosting The Joy Behar Show on HLN, a news and talk program that aired while she continued her View duties. Despite being HLN’s second-highest-rated show, the network canceled it in 2011 after two years.
She returned to talk shows in 2012 with Joy Behar: Say Anything! on Current TV. That show ended in August 2013 when Current TV was sold to Al Jazeera and became Al Jazeera America. In 2015, she hosted Late Night Joy on TLC, featuring intimate conversations with friends in her New York City apartment. The show was canceled after five episodes.
Behar has also acted in various projects. She voiced Eunice in the animated film Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012) and played Dr. Lucy in the comedy Hall Pass (2011). She’s appeared on 30 Rock, Ugly Betty, and in Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail (2009). She’s performed in theatrical productions including The Vagina Monologues, The Food Chain, and Love, Loss and What I Wore.
Writing Books and Finding Her Voice on Paper
Behar has authored several books throughout her career. In 1999, she published Joy Shtick: Or What Is the Existential Vacuum and Does It Come with Attachments?, a collection of humorous essays and stories. The book translated her stand-up material into print, covering topics like middle age, her Italian-American family, and the differences between men and women.
She wrote a children’s book titled Sheetzucacapoopoo: My Kind of Dog in 2006. In 2017, she published The Great Gasbag: An A–Z Study Guide to Surviving Trump World, offering commentary on the Trump era through her signature comedic lens.
From 2001 to several years after, Behar wrote a monthly column called “Talk To Me” for Good Housekeeping magazine, providing humorous advice to readers. Her writing has always reflected her comedy: direct, funny, and unapologetically honest.
My First Ex-Husband: Turning Divorce Into Comedy
In 2025, at age 82, Behar achieved a long-held dream: debuting her own play. My First Ex-Husband premiered off-Broadway in New York City in January before moving to Boston in September. The play explores divorce through eight monologues based on interviews with real women.
Behar interviewed approximately 15 women about their divorces, selecting the funniest and most compelling stories for the show. The characters include women married to the mob, to their jobs, to their faith, to money, and ultimately to the wrong man. The production features a rotating cast of actresses from theater, television, and film, including Veanne Cox, Judy Gold, Jackie Hoffman, and Tonya Pinkins. Whoopi Goldberg appeared in a special one-night performance in April.
The idea came from Behar’s own divorce. She married college professor Joe Behar in 1965 when she was just 22. They had a daughter, Eve, in 1970, but the marriage didn’t last. They divorced in 1981 after 16 years together. “We had many things that we didn’t—he wanted to live at the beach, I hate the beach. You have geographical differences, you have taste differences. You’re growing in this way and he’s growing in that way,” Behar explained on The View.
After the divorce, Behar and her girlfriends would talk about their marriages and what went wrong. Years later, she decided to record these conversations and shape them into monologues. “The essence of each piece is based on a true story,” she told the Boston Globe in September 2025.
The play tackles a difficult subject with humor. Behar believes perspective makes divorce funny. “When you first get divorced, nothing is amusing. But with perspective, it’s funny,” she said. She advises that taking responsibility for your part in a failed relationship helps you move past it. “I always say that if you want to get over a broken relationship, cop to the blame that you have to take also. If you don’t take the blame for your part, you never get past it.”
Marriage to Steve Janowitz: 40 Years and Counting
Behar met her second husband most unusually. In 1982, she attended a semi-nudist colony in Woodstock, New York. She spotted Steve Janowitz from a distance while he was nude and she was fully clothed. “For a man to see me naked, I have to be in his will,” she joked on The View in March 2020.
They officially spoke later that night when Janowitz was dressed for a movie screening. They hit it off immediately and began dating. For the next 29 years, they were a couple but didn’t marry. Behar has said they waited for several reasons: both their parents had passed away, avoiding “marriage invasion” by in-laws, and they wanted New York to pass marriage equality legislation. “It brought to my consciousness why gays needed to get married. And I thought it was a good reason for me to get married. And so did Steve, so we did it,” she told Closer Weekly.
They finally married on August 11, 2011, at Leonard’s Palazzo in an invite-only ceremony. Janowitz is a retired middle school math teacher, seven years younger than Behar. Like his wife, he spent years in education before retiring. He’s the stepfather to Behar’s daughter Eve, and the grandfather to her grandson Luca, born in 2011.
Behar credits their relationship success to humor and stability. “He has no mood swings. You can’t have two people with mood swings,” she explained. “Humor keeps people going. That is very important. We don’t really fight, because we start laughing if we get mad, and I think that’s the key to longevity in a marriage—just to start laughing when you start to get angry.”
The couple splits their time between a three-bedroom apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and a home in the Hamptons. They host frequent gatherings with friends and maintain active social lives. Despite being together for over 40 years, they still find things to argue about—mostly about driving. “He’s a back seat driver, a front seat driver,” Behar said on The View’s Behind the Table podcast in 2024. “He has completely made me into a nervous driver because he’s always criticizing how I drive.”
Family Life: Daughter Eve and Grandson Luca
Behar’s daughter, Eve Behar Scotti, was born on November 26, 1970, during her first marriage to Joe Behar. Eve was 12 years old when her mother started dating Steve Janowitz in 1982. She initially worked in television production during the 1990s but left the entertainment industry to pursue ceramic art.
Eve studied ceramics in Florence and Canada before establishing her own practice called Eve Behar Ceramics in the Hamptons. She creates functional and decorative pottery pieces from her home studio. In 2007, she married Alphonso Anthony Scotti. Four years later, in 2011, they welcomed their son Luca.
Behar has spoken openly about how much she adores her grandson. “It’s like, you know, it’s just like you’re in love again,” she told Anderson Cooper in 2011. “You know when you’re first in love with a guy, and you’re running towards each other in slow motion.” Luca was 14 years old as of 2025 and has appeared at events with his grandmother and grandfather.
Net Worth and Salary: What Joy Behar Earns
Behar’s net worth is estimated at $28 million as of 2025, according to multiple financial reports. Her primary income source is The View, where she earns an annual salary reported to be $7 million. This makes her the second-highest-paid panelist on the show, behind Whoopi Goldberg.
Her wealth comes from multiple sources beyond her. View salary. She earns residuals from past television show,s including The Joy Behar Show and Joy Behar: Say Anything! Book sales from her published works continue to generate income. She performs stand-up comedy at venues and corporate events. Voice acting work in films like Ice Age: Continental Drift provides additional earnings. She owns valuable real estate in Manhattan and the Hamptons.
Behar has never been shy about discussing money. In September 2025, when asked on The View why she doesn’t retire, she responded alongside Whoopi Goldberg that creative people don’t really retire. Goldberg added, “I’ve got to keep paying those bills, baby.” Behar noted, “Creative people don’t really retire. I just really like to write and create stuff.”
Political Views and Controversies
Behar is a registered Democrat and never hides her political leanings on The View. She’s known for outspoken commentary on American politics, particularly during election seasons. Her liberal stance has made her both beloved by progressive viewers and criticized by conservatives.
In 2018, Behar faced backlash after commenting on Vice President Mike Pence’s religiosity. When discussing Omarosa’s remarks about Pence, Behar said, “It’s one thing to talk to Jesus, it’s another thing when Jesus talks to you. That’s called mental illness, if I’m not correct, hearing voices.” The Media Research Center launched a campaign demanding an apology and urging advertisers to boycott the show.
In October 2010, Behar and Whoopi Goldberg walked off The View set during a segment with Bill O’Reilly after he said, “Muslims killed us on 9/11.” The incident went viral, with millions viewing the clip online. Both hosts later returned to finish the show, and Barbara Walters expressed disappointment with their walkout.
Throughout the Trump presidency and into the current political climate, Behar has been vocal in her criticism of policies and figures she disagrees with. Conservative commentators have called her “irrelevant” and accused her of having “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” but Behar continues to share her opinions without apology. It’s part of what makes The View compelling television and what keeps her relevant to audiences who appreciate her honesty.
Will Joy Behar Retire?
Retirement questions have followed Behar for years, but she consistently shuts them down. In March 2025, she addressed speculation after comments on the Behind the Table podcast hinted at retirement. She quickly clarified that she’s not leaving anytime soon.
Back in 2022, Behar told People magazine, “I have no plans to retire. Sometimes I don’t believe that, as I’ve been here since the beginning, but we’re the most-watched show in daytime. Most-watched! I’m happy to be a part of it. So, no, I’m not going anywhere. I’m having a good time.”
At 82, Behar shows no signs of slowing down. She continues co-hosting The View five days a week, performs in her play My First Ex-Husband during its run, and pursues writing projects. In September 2025, she and Whoopi Goldberg returned to The View Season 29, confirming they’re both committed to the show.
The View has been the most-watched daytime talk show for five consecutive seasons. Behar’s presence remains a key factor in its success. Her quick wit, willingness to ask difficult questions, and chemistry with co-hosts keep audiences engaged. She’s been part of the show for nearly 28 years across two stints, making her an irreplaceable part of its identity.
Fun Facts About Joy Behar
Behar has several quirks and interests that make her more than just a television personality. She completes the New York Times crossword puzzle every day and occasionally seeks help from crossword blogger Rex Parker. She’s admitted to being a fantastic cook who makes incredible lasagna, which she delivers to Whoopi Goldberg every year for her birthday.
Before boarding planes, Behar ensures pilots are awake and sober—a humorous admission that reflects her anxious tendencies. She can’t stand hard-boiled eggs because of their gelatinous texture. Her husband Steve is seven years younger than her, which she says is beneficial. “As you age, having someone younger than you around to help is beneficial,” she explained.
During an October 2011 interview with HuffPost shortly after marrying Janowitz, Behar joked about their relationship: “We’re really romantic. We like to sit on the floor naked, eating cannoli and watching Hoarders.” The comment perfectly captures her humor—self-deprecating, unexpected, and candid.
In July 2024, Behar made headlines when she revealed on The View that she might need to conduct a séance to consult her dead friends for life advice. “A lot of my friends are dead,” she said matter-of-factly. Whoopi Goldberg asked if they consulted her before dying, to which Behar responded, “I think I’m going to have to have a séance. I think so.” It was vintage Behar—turning a morbid topic into comedy gold.
The Legacy of Joy Behar
Joy Behar’s career spans more than four decades in entertainment. She started as a receptionist with a dream and built herself into one of daytime television’s most recognizable figures. She’s won an Emmy, written books, performed on Broadway, voiced animated characters, and created her own play at age 82.
But her real legacy might be simpler than any accolade. She’s shown that women don’t have expiration dates in show business. She’s proven that being yourself—sharp-tongued, opinionated, and unfiltered—can be an asset rather than a liability. She’s made space for post-menopausal women to have a voice in media, addressing topics others ignored.
Behar has never been perfect. She’s said things that sparked controversy. She’s walked off sets and made enemies. But she’s also been authentic, which matters to audiences tired of polished, focus-grouped personalities. She tells it like she sees it, asks the questions others won’t, and doesn’t apologize for taking up space.
At 82, Behar remains creatively active and professionally relevant. She co-hosts America’s most-watched daytime talk show, stages her own theatrical production, and maintains a marriage that’s lasted four decades. She’s a working comedian, a published author, and a grandmother. She’s living proof that starting over at 37 after teaching English in Long Island can lead to extraordinary places.
FAQs
How old is Joy Behar?
Joy Behar is 82 years old. She was born on October 7, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York.
What is Joy Behar’s real name?
Joy Behar was born Josephine Victoria Occhiuto. Behar is the surname of her first husband, Joe Behar, whom she married in 1965.
Is Joy Behar still married?
Yes, Joy Behar is married to Steve Janowitz, a retired middle school math teacher. They dated for 29 years before marrying in August 2011.
How much does Joy Behar make on The View?
Joy Behar reportedly earns an annual salary of $7 million as a co-host of The View, making her the second-highest-paid panelist on the show.
Does Joy Behar have children?
Yes, Joy Behar has one daughter, Eve Behar Scotti, born in 1970 from her first marriage to Joe Behar. She also has a grandson named Luca, born in 2011.
What is My First Ex-Husband?
My First Ex-Husband is Joy Behar’s debut play that premiered off-Broadway in 2025. The comedic production features eight monologues about divorce based on interviews with real women.
Conclusion
Joy Behar’s career is a testament to persistence, humor, and refusing to be silenced. From a Brooklyn classroom to national television, she’s built a life on her own terms. She’s created space for difficult conversations, championed causes she believes in, and never pretended to be anything other than herself.
At 82, she’s not slowing down. She’s still making audiences laugh, asking tough questions, and creating new work. Whether you love her or find her polarizing, there’s no denying her impact on daytime television and comedy. Joy Behar is exactly who she wants to be—and that’s the most inspiring thing of all.
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