'Divorce can be choosing yourself': 'The View' co-hosts discuss upsides of ending marriage

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Sara Haines, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, and Alyssa Farah Griffin discussed the utilities of divorce on the February 27 episode of 'The View.'

The subject was broached at the Hot Topics table when Goldberg mentioned that Hollywood couple Jodie Turner-Smith and Joshua Jackson were getting a divorce, which Turner-Smith "did not consider a failure" and as something that "simply didn't work out."

Sara Haines' take on divorces and kids

"Unhappy marriages can be really bad for the kids too," began Haines, picking up the conversation after Hostin shared how hard it was for her being a child of divorced parents.

"Divorce can be growth, divorce can be liberation. Divorce can be choosing yourself when you need to," she continued.

"I think life's too short. So many of us were raised to think, once you are in, you are in, that's it. I think there is a freedom in just knowing that there's options if you need them."

"Therapy will tell you, there is a point sometimes when you get to it, and they are like, you have done the work but this is not right. That's a good thing," she added.

Joy Behar shares her personal experience

"If there is no restraining order involved, I think it's a success," joked the co-host at the start. "If there is a restraining order, maybe we can say it was a failure."

"But most marriages end because people grow apart, or there is some chippy on the side. Those are the two reasons. And in my own case, I have to say... "

"Did you have a chippy on the side?" Hostin cut in, to the amusement of others. However, Behar said that she was unaware of there being one, and she did not care anyway.

"But I don't think I'd be sitting here if I had stayed married," she continued. "Because we had many things that we didn't... He wanted to live in the beach, I hate the beach."

"You have geographical differences, you have taste differences, you are growing in this way, he is growing in that way. Yes the children suffer, and I don't recommend divorce because it is very painful."

"But in my own case, I wouldn't have a comedy career, I don't think I would have had a career in the same way if I stayed married because I was accompanying him in his life. And that's the thing to avoid," she concluded.

Behar was presumably speaking of her former husband Joseph Behar, with whom she was married from 1965 to 1981.