Candace Cameron Bure Says She Has ‘PTSD’ From Her Time Hosting ‘The View’
Former co-host of The View, Candace Cameron Bure, revealed that being a long-term cast member of the show took quite the toll on her mental health, in this week’s episode of The View: Behind the Table podcast. Cameron Bure, 45, sat down with former co-hosts Raven-Symoné and Sara Haines to discuss their time hosting The View and each of their decisions to ultimately leave.
The former Full House star co-hosted the show from 2015 to 2016 during seasons 19 and 20 after a few guest host appearances. When the show offered her a long-term position to host, Cameron Bure revealed she didn’t even know they were looking to fill a seat, and she was “shocked and flattered” by the opportunity. After working out the details of how she would live in Los Angeles but work in New York, she decided to take the gig.
“It was something that was new and I knew it was going to challenge me,” she said on the podcast. And though she was originally pitched a show that would have her filming live four days a week with a fifth pre-recorded day on topics like family, sex, and life, she quickly discovered that The View was going to be very different.
The Dancing With The Stars competitor shared that “It all changed when Trump entered the race.” Suddenly, she was asked to share her thoughts and opinions with a massive audience that went far beyond the four people at the table, leaving her in a very difficult position she wasn’t prepared for.
“The stress and the anxiety. I actually have a pit in my stomach right now,” She said. “There was only one type of stress that I’ve ever felt in my life, that came from that show. And I [have] PTSD, like, I can feel it. It was so difficult, and to manage that emotional stress was very, very hard.”
Coming from a family that didn’t discuss much politics, Cameron Bure suddenly found herself on a show that filmed live five days a week, instead of the four they had promised, and she would spend four to five hours a night preparing for the morning’s show, sometimes about topics she didn’t know much about or care to discuss in front of an audience.
“When I felt like I was going into a show that I felt like I didn’t have a clear opinion about, or it was something that I was legitimately nervous to talk about because I knew that I did have an opinion, but I knew I was going to be the only one at the table that has my opinion, I would just get sick to my stomach,” she said.
The actress revealed that she would cry in her dressing room almost every day because she was exhausted from flying back and forth between California and New York, and because of the situation she was put in to be the voice of conservative Christian women on a national platform. “I felt a pressure to represent my community well,” she said. “The schedule took its toll on my body, which affected my emotional health.”
And though she knew most people on the show had their opinion and would be respectful of hers, producers pushed her to be more vocal than she was comfortable with and encouraged her to push back against other hosts. “It isn’t who I want to be. It’s not that I couldn’t do it, I just don’t feel like conversations are their healthiest when they’re done that way and you’re forced to make it competitive,” She said. “That would make me sick to my stomach as well. So many mornings I would just be crying before the show.”
Ultimately, Cameron Bure decided to leave The View for her own mental health and to focus on her other commitments. “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,” she said.
The actress concluded that though co-hosting the show was hard, looking back she’s happy with her choice to join the panel. “I don’t know if I regret anything, honestly,” she said. “As difficult as that job was, I’m very very grateful for it.”
You Might Also Like
