Haines discussed a turbulent time on the set of the third “Good Morning America” hour after giving birth: “Everyone else projected a change,” Haines said.

Key Points

  • Sara Haines revealed why she thinks
    GMA3
    was a “failed experiment” in her career.
  • She also noted that she “cried every day” on set after giving birth to her son, Caleb.
  • “You can’t put a
    Kelly & Michael
    show at that hour,” Haines said on a new podcast.


The View

cohost

Sara Haines

might’ve enjoyed her time working with

Michael Strahan

and

Keke Palmer

on

ABC

‘s short-lived

GMA3: Strahan, Sara, and Keke

talk show, but she revealed in a new podcast interview that she battled intense personal turmoil behind the scenes while working on the show.

In a recent appearance on the

Question Everything

podcast with Danielle Robay, the 47-year-old reflected on headlining the program alongside Strahan across the third hour of

Good Morning America

‘
s various shifts over the years, including Palmer’s addition to the 2018 program’s full-time lineup in 2019.

While Haines told Robay she enjoyed working with Strahan and Palmer (and remains close with them), she can now look back on a bit of “foreshadowing” for the show’s demise, after she said the ABC team pitched her a few titles for the new show at the time, and ended up selecting the one title she recalled expressing distaste with.

“That should’ve told me everything I needed to know,” Haines joked.

“I think the problem was it was a failed experiment from the beginning. You can’t put a
Kelly and Michael
show at that hour,” Haines observed, referencing Strahan’s tenure on — and tumultuous exit from — daytime icon

Kelly Ripa

‘s
Live
show in 2016. “They needed to keep it branded [to
GMA
] to make it that. If it was going to be a standalone, it couldn’t be a replication. I wasn’t the only one thinking it was like a [
Kelly and Michael
]. I’m sure Michael was thinking that.”

Haines, who previously completed the famed

NBC

Page program and worked as an on-camera correspondent at the channel before departing for ABC in 2013, said that comparing herself to Strahan and Palmer’s fame “took me back to dark places” in her own mind over “the pressure” to live up to both of her cohosts’ standings in the industry.

Further complicating things, Haines said, was the day she and her husband, Max Shifrin, were expecting their third child, Caleb, who was born in June 2019.

One week before she discovered Caleb was on the way, Haines said she remembered telling Shifrin that she “could have a mental breakdown” if she became pregnant while attempting to make
GMA3
a success after leaving her full-time post at
The View
(which she first landed in 2016) to do so.

“That was the beginning of all the falling dominos,” explained Haines. “I knew the north star was family, but I also know, girl, you were just given a show, and you are Sara, not Michael. You get pregnant? Every bad female storyline started flying at my face.”

She said Shifrin then told her to “stop holding on to this show like it was the dream you had, because it never was. It just sounded like it,” which allowed her time to breathe and relax while accepting that the fate of the show was sealed, as she and others suspected it would be discontinued with Haines, Strahan, and Palmer in 2020.

Ahead of the show’s 2020 retooling, also contributing to Haines’ anxieties behind the scenes were what she called perceived shifts in how the
GMA3
staff treated her after she returned to work after Caleb’s birth.

“I hadn’t changed. Everyone else projected a change,” Haines said, adding that she felt like she wasn’t getting the same opportunities to do more daring segments. “I cried every day. Funny enough, there were a lot of great moments. The staff was amazing. I loved Keke and Michael, talk about laughing until you hurt. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, that’s the problem. As it played out, it felt like I was being dragged behind a car. For the first time, I couldn’t wait to leave.”

Following the end of her tenure on
GMA3
, Haines returned to
The View
as a permanent cohost in 2020, replacing

conservative panelist Abby Huntsman

in a seat at the Hot Topics table she’s held ever since.


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“How grateful I am that
The View
said, if you’re not busy, we want you back,” Haines said. “I felt even a double gratitude that there was a chance again.”

Entertainment Weekly
has reached out to a representative for Haines at ABC for additional comment from the
View
cohost and the network.

The View
airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET/10 a.m. PT on

ABC

. Watch Haines discuss
GMA3: Strahan, Sara, and Keke
in the video above.

Read the original article on

Entertainment Weekly