Key Points
Sherri Shepherd said she went through many “failures” and “humiliations” on The View.
“Barbara Walters made me cry for three years straight,” Shepherd said.
She added that the TV icon also helped her find her true voice on the talk show.
Talk show staple Sherri Shepherd has opened up about the taxing process of finding her now-iconic voice thanks to late The View creator Barbara Walters.
The 58-year-old Sherri host revealed that she had an emotionally turbulent time adapting to The View’s environment upon joining the ABC program as a regular panelist back in 2007.
Shepherd recounted on The Jamie Kern Lima Show podcast that she was brought up in a religious family, which led to difficulties communicating because she was “taught to look at the ground when I talk” to others, so she had trouble “speaking my mind” on the talk show at first.
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Sherri Shepherd and Barbara Walters on ‘The View’
“It was a lot of failures, it was a lot of humiliations. When I got on The View, it was everything I hated to do, I had to do every day on The View. I was a very fearful person,” Shepherd recalled. “I was not like that, I was very fearful, I was very shy. I didn’t express my opinion. I learned it, I said it, but I was not this Sherri. To be interrupting people, [I initially thought] if I didn’t interrupt people on The View, I didn’t get hurt.”
Without naming names, Shepherd admitted that she’s seen “a lot of people” speak poorly of their experience on The View, before speaking about her own difficulties during her tenure.
“For me, it was one of the best experiences of my life. I did cry for three years. Barbara Walters made me cry for three years straight, but what I learned, she taught me how to find my voice,” reflected Shepherd. “I found my voice on that show. I joke, I say, now my voice is deep because Barbara told me when your voice is deeper, it projects confidence.”
Shepherd said that while Walters “was hard on me,” she still values everything she gained by working alongside the broadcast legend, who died in 2022 at age 93 after previously launching The View in 1997.
“She was like, ‘Read a book, know why you’re saying what you’re saying, to defend what you’re saying,'” Shepherd said. “It’s okay if you fall, it’s okay to make a mistake. That’s what I learned.”
Shepherd said she also felt unsure of “how to go up against these ladies” at the Hot Topics table when she joined the program, with her longtime producer also giving her advice that helped her navigate the heated conversations on the air.
He told her that she carries “the weight of everybody” on her shoulders, and that she should stop approaching that as a responsibility in her position.
She finished the point, saying that, “Once I realized, you know what, it’s too much, I’m stressing, I’m gaining weight, I’m eating so much because I’m stuffing all these feelings inside, it feels so good to say, this is what I feel.”
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During her time on The View, which ended in 2014, Shepherd made headlines several times for her stances on specific issues — including a moment that came shortly after she joined the table, when she questioned whether or not the earth was flat or spherical.
Shepherd has returned to The View many times over the years, including in 2023 during an emotional tribute to Walters shortly after her death.
Watch Shepherd discuss Walters and The View above.
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