Sherri Shepherd Defends Former Co-Host Jenny McCarthy’s ‘The View’ Critique: ‘Absolutely True’

Sherri Shepherd has Jenny McCarthy’s back.

The Less Than Perfect star, 58, came to her former The View co-host’s defense after she criticized the daytime talk show for pivoting to politics after they hired her in 2013.

“Everything that Jenny is saying is absolutely true,” she confirmed on the Thursday, January 8, episode of her eponymous talk show. “I felt really bad for my friend because they did — they brought her on the show after a lot of focus groups said they wanted less fighting about politics. They wanted it to be more chill and more fun.”

The Playboy model, 53, fit the bill, Shepherd added. “She was light, and she was funny and she was sexy.”

But then, “the focus groups changed their minds,” she revealed. “They wanted the politics back. They wanted us going back and forth.”

Shepherd can still remember the day The View switched to politics.

“Jenny came into my dressing room,” the actress recalled. “She goes, ‘Sherri, oh my God, what am I gonna do?’ And I looked at her, I said, ‘What are you gonna do? What are we gonna do?’”

McCarthy tried to play the part.

“They had the girl wearing glasses. She was like, ‘Sherri, they want me to look like I know politics,’” spilled Shepherd. “I said, ‘How do you have Playmate of the Year looking conservative?’ They would try to make Jenny look conservative, but all she looked like was a sexy librarian.”

Shepherd hadn’t expected the show to become so political, either.

“When I came on the show, they wanted someone light, they wanted a person who was a mother, to talk about being single, being a mother, it was supposed to be very light,” she said. “But then, Barack Obama ran for president, and politics was all we talked about.”

Unlike McCarthy though, Shepherd has no regrets about her time on the show.

“Even though it was hard for me, I had the best time on The View,” she insisted. “It was one of the best, hardest, most terrifying, most crying-filled experiences, but I love it, and I’m friends for life with the women that I sat with at that table.”