Sara Haines and Joy Behar ABC/Jenny Anderson
During the Wednesday, October 30, episode of The View, cohost Joy Behar questioned Sara Haines about an apparent previous same-sex relationship live on the air.
It came up towards the end of the broadcast when Whoopi Goldberg teased that Haines, 47, and her parents, in the audience that day, were the next guests on the show’s companion podcast.
“I have to ask you a question: So, are you going to bring up that lesbian relationship you said you had or not?” Behar, 82, chimed in. “You know, back at school at Smith [College].”
Haines immediately burst into laughter before requesting that her dad cover his ears for the remainder of the segment.
“Earmuffs,” Haines quipped. “It’s a good thing my dad doesn’t always watch — but now he does.”
Joy Behar (L) and Sara Haines. Gary Gershoff/Getty Images
Fellow The View anchor Alyssa Farah Griffin then pointed out that Haines had told Behar and the rest of the cast about her college experience “off-air.”
Until The View’s Wednesday episode, Haines never publicly discussed any explorations of her sexuality. She has been married to husband Max Shifrin since 2014, later welcoming sons Alec, 8, and Caleb, 5, and daughter Sandra, 6.
During a previous broadcast, Haines admitted that she and Shifrin had a unique bedtime bartering system.
“Our bedtime is really raucous. [With] three kids at the same age, there is always one darting and running,” she said on a September 2021 episode. “Joy told me the other day, ‘That’s because it’s a job for a 23-year-old, not you!’ She was teasing me because I’m so tired. We weren’t designed for this. So the physical [part of parenting], we have empty tanks.”
Haines added, “I turned to Max and I just said, ‘I’m willing to have transactional deals with you if you can just put the kids to bed, please.’ That’s about how romantic the suggestion felt too. ‘I will pay you in other things, other currency if you go ahead and put those kids to bed.’”
Three years earlier, Haines exclusively opened up to Us Weekly about how she and Shifrin balance parenting duties with their relationship and work. (While Haines is a TV personality, Shifrin serves as an attorney.)
“I think to three, I haven’t really completely noticed because you already know that you just are going to have to divide and conquer,” Haines exclusively told Us in September 2019 during her pregnancy with Caleb. “So I don’t think I’ve felt the jump as supremely. It’s just keeping those toddlers, who are, like, climbing the walls, alive.”
Haines was cohosting a third hour of Good Morning America at the time. After a one-month maternity leave following the birth of Caleb, Haines returned to work.
