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Meghan McCain announces she's leaving The View after ABC reportedly 'begged for her to stay'

Meghan McCain is out at The View

McCain announced Thursday she'll be leaving the ABC talk show after four seasons, as had been previously revealed by the Daily Mail. She'll remain on the show until the end of July. 

McCain and her husband welcomed a baby girl, Liberty, in 2020, and on Thursday, she said she wanted to remain in Washington, D.C. with her family. She moved there and started filming episodes remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, Variety notes, but according to Axios, ABC wanted her to return to the show's studio in New York City. 

"I just have this really wonderful life here that, ultimately, I felt like I didn't want to leave," she said. 

McCain, a conservative and daughter of the late Sen. John McCain, was known to frequently clash with her co-hosts on The View. ABC "begged for her to stay" and offered her a contributor role, but she turned it down, a Disney source told Page Six

McCain said Thursday it was a "privilege" to work with the "most talented women on all of television" and that leaving wasn't "easy" but was the "right decision for me." Co-host Whoopi Goldberg told McCain it was "quite wonderful to sit across from" her, while Joy Behar praised her as a "formidable opponent" and "no snowflake." 

"I will still be here another month," McCain noted, "so if you guys want to fight a little bit more, we have four more weeks."