The View star Alyssa Farah Griffin brands the show’s executive producer a ‘MASOCHIST’ for pitting her against her ‘nemesis’ Stephanie Grisham during ‘wild’ auditions for co-host role: ‘It was so defeating’

Alyssa Farah Griffin of The View has labeled the show’s executive producer a “masochist” after pitting her against her political “enemy” Stephanie Grisham for a role on the show.

Alyssa, 34, was named permanent co-host of the ABC show in August 2022, but before that made several guest appearances as part of a lengthy audition process she described as “wild.”

During an interview on the Behind The Table podcast with the show’s executive producer Brian Teta, the political strategist opened up about the “worries and fears” she had when she joined the panel as she marked her one year on The View sat, and joked that she “barely made it.”

She also touched on her rivalry with 47-year-old Stephanie, who also guest-hosted in 2022, admitting that she found it “so defeating” to compete against her former White House rival for a permanent spot at the table.

During the chat, Brian admitted that the process of hiring Alyssa was “a little different” because ABC needed “an entire year of actual open auditions” to find the right person.

When asked how she had found it, Alyssa began: ‘First and foremost I loved my freshman year, I can’t believe the year is already over, it has flown by. I came into this with a million fears, worries and fears.

“It’s an iconic show, we have so many loyal viewers, and I felt embraced, I felt embraced by the table and especially by our team.”

She continued, “But man, the audition process… I had a strange approach to it. There were so many wonderful women. I thought they would all have been great if you auditioned, honestly.’

She then revealed, “This is embarrassing to admit… I watched the first time everyone went on to guest host, and then I stopped watching because what I realized is you get into your head when you try to be someone else.”

“So I came on, I felt like I was excited about my performance, I felt like I got a little more comfortable at the table each time, but then you go home and you don’t know. .” Alyssa admitted it.

“I didn’t know I was going to get the job until the end of the season, so you’d get excited about the opportunity, but I even tried to keep my mind from going there, saying, ‘You’d end up with a real Watch co-host, “it was a wild period!”

Alyssa went on to talk about how hard she found it to stand up to Stephanie for the job.

Speaking frankly to Brian, she explained, “The other audition woman I had the hardest time with was Stephanie Grisham. We had worked together in the White House and we were just, fair to God, mortal enemies!

“We didn’t get along. I think a lot probably had to do with outside factors and people pitting us against each other, but she popped into my head because some kind of rivalry already existed.

“I felt like I did so well on the show and then I’d be like, ‘Oh, she’s coming on the show the next day,’ and it would be so disappointing!”

She then joked to Brian, “For example, you are a masochist in the way you do this to the poor women!”

Fortunately, Brian saw the funny side of her comment and started laughing when Alyssa continued, “But what most people don’t know has nothing to do with the show. Halfway through the audition season, she and I hooked up at CNN and we left. all our problems.

“She actually approached it and had thought about it a lot and said as she looked at me she felt like maybe the way we felt about each other wasn’t fair and we had let outside factors influence us, and she’s become one of my dear friends and someone who is an incredible support system for me.”

She was proud of me and congratulated me on getting the job, which I think shows a lot of character and not something you see often in this industry.”

Alyssa and Stephanie both worked at the White House a few years ago, when the latter served as White House communications director from July 2019 to April 2020.

She then served as Chief of Staff and Press Secretary to the First Lady of the United States Melania Trump from 2020 to 2021, having previously served as her Press Secretary from 2017 to 2019.

In 2021, Stephanie released an explosive book titled I’ll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House, claiming that Melania was nicknamed “Rapunzel” by the Secret Service because she rarely left the White House .

She also claimed in her book that she “almost told” Melania that her husband, then-President Donald Trump, had taken an “unusual interest” in a young female staffer, writing, “A few times I almost got to the point to tell it. Mrs. Trump on the President’s conduct.

“I thought if she said one word to him about it, she could make it stop. But I could never bring myself to say anything.’

Finally, she said it was too “chicken***” to tell the then First Lady.

Or “maybe it wasn’t my job or my business,” she notes.

Meanwhile, Alyssa served as White House Director of Strategic Communications and Assistant to the President in 2020 during Donald Trump’s presidency.

She resigned in December of that year and has since spoken out against Trump during her time on The View.

In July, Alyssa became embroiled in a bitter political spat with her co-host Sunny Hostin when she revealed she would not be voting for Trump or President Joe Biden in the upcoming election.

Her confession led 54-year-old Sunny to accuse her of “throwing away” her vote — an accusation that left Alyssa looking visibly annoyed and seeing fellow View panelist Sara Haines jump to his defense.