Kathy Griffin Reveals Why She Turned Down $1.4M Offer to Host The View

In a new YouTube video posted Tuesday, the comedian claimed she once turned down a $1.4 million offer to permanently co-host The View because it would’ve completely disrupted her life.

Griffin explained that in the mid-2000s, she was already flying back and forth between Los Angeles and New York for regular guest appearances on the daytime talk show, and while she was getting paid to be on-air, there were still a lot of out-of-pocket expenses that made the gig a difficult one.

“I was flying myself back and forth and putting myself up and paying for my own wardrobe and glam,” Griffin said.

According to the comedian, she had “over two dozen conversations” with ABC before the official offer came in.

“Eventually I said to my agent, ‘OK, tell them if they’re going to offer me a permanent chair, please tell them to just offer me the chair or not,'” she recalled.

When the network allegedly made the $1.4 million offer, Griffin said it just didn’t make sense for her to accept, both personally and financially.

“I am just going to be honest, I had to turn it down because at the time between doing My Life on the D-List and touring, I was making about 10 [million dollars] a year,” she shared. “I had to turn down The View because I would have had to uproot my whole life.”

Griffin was also helping care for her parents at the time and said moving across the country wasn’t realistic for her or them.

“I remember when they offered me the job, Barbara Walters said backstage one time before we were about to go out and do the live show, ‘They say we have chemistry, I don’t really see it but they say we do.’ And I loved that,” Griffin said. “I said, ‘Of course we do Barbara, people love when I give you s–t.’ And then she just rolled her eyes.”

But their rapport made turning the job down even tougher, with Griffin sharing that she actually pulled Walters to the side to explain her decision face-to-face.

“I want you to know why I’m going to say no. It’s not that I think I’m too good for this show, it’s the opposite: this show is too good for me,” she told the legendary journalist. “I don’t want you to think I’m blowing smoke, but between moving costs and I’m so entwined with my mom and dad. I have a house in Los Angeles, and it just isn’t feasible for me to do, but I want you to hear it directly from me.”

She even offered to show Walters her tax returns to back up her explanation.

Walters “did not like that one bit,” Griffin recalled. “She didn’t care. [ABC] didn’t up their offer by a penny. I think I might have said something like, ‘Can you meet me halfway?’ And they didn’t. But there’s the real story.”