The View's Sara Haines Shares "Brutal" Reason for Show Absence

The View host Sara Haines shared that her husband Max Shifrin's father died, causing her to miss a Sept. 16 taping of the morning show, and explained how her family is coping.

ByMarissa DowSep 17, 2026 8:40 PMTags

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Sara Haines is leading with love amid her family's grief.

After her abrupt absence from the Sept. 16 episode of The View, the panelist shared the reason for missing out on the taping was due to the death of her husband Max Shifrin’s father.

"I wanted to share why I was missing yesterday," Haines explained on The View Sept. 17. "My father-in-law passed away. He’s been in hospice for a week, so we knew it was coming, but I think the second that landed it kind of allowed a load you’re carrying for so long to gush out."

And the 48-year-old got candid about the emotional impact of the update that left her "heart sick" and "head sick."

"It’s the chapter we’re in, and we all be a part of this club eventually," she continued, "but, wow, it’s brutal."

As such, Haines—mom to kids Alec, 10, Sandra, 8 and Caleb, 7, with Shifrin—expressed empathy for her husband as he grieves the parent she called the 43-year-old's "North Star."

"Max has been gone, he hasn’t seen the kids, and now he’s finally back," the Good Morning America alum said. "We’re pouring love into him. But it was the most important person in Max’s life."

And the Iowan added that she "found out right before the show yesterday" in an effort "to quell any rumors going around" that may have started when co-hosts Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg first announced her absence.

"Joy, you're the queen of, 'Well, she's not sick, but she's somewhere,'" Haines, who's been a host on the show since 2016, teased. "You made it sound so interesting I almost didn't want to ruin it with the truth."

Photo by Valerie Terranova/Getty Images

For Behar's part, she confessed that she didn't expect clarifying that Haines wasn't out due to illness would cause such speculation.

"I think we started it, Whoopi and I, the rumors," the New Yorker admitted. "I didn't want people to think that you were sick."

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