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Joy Behar is an actress and comedian, most known as one of the co-hosts of ‘The View.’
She’s been married to Steve Janowitz since 2011.
She was married to her first husband Joe Behar from 1965 to 1981.
Joy Behar has been a staple of daytime TV for decades. As one of the original co-hosts of The View, Joy has been a fan favorite among viewers for many years. Despite a short hiatus when she was fired in 2013, she’s been the longest-serving host of the show, and she’s never shied away from sharing her feelings and sharing a witty comeback.
One of the most popular subjects of Joy’s comedy has been her husband Steve Janowitz. The talk show host regularly speaks about her husband both on the show and in her comedy. Find out more about Steve here!
How Did Joy Meet Steve?
Joy has admitted that she and Steve’s first meeting place was definitely a little unorthodox, to say the least. The comedian shared the hilarious story of their first meeting on a March 2020 episode of The View, when then-presidential candidate Andrew Yang was a guest, per The Sun. “I met my husband at a semi-nudist colony,” she said.
Naturally, her co-hosts asked if she was nude, and she shared the story. “He was naked. I was not. For a man to see me naked, I have to be in his will,” she said. “He was all the way on the other side of this place, and it was an adult place.”
Joy revealed that after catching a glimpse of Steve early in the day, they chatted it up later. “He was far away when he was naked, and then at night, there was a movie playing, and then I saw him fully dressed,” she said. “But I remembered him from the daytime.”
Joy smiles as she leaves ‘The View’ in July 2023. (RW/MediaPunch/Shutterstock)
Joy and Steve Dated for Nearly 30 Years Before Getting Married
While Joy and Steve have only been married for a little more than a decade, their relationship has been going for much longer. The pair met at the “semi-nudist colony” in 1982, and they’d been together ever since. The pair were together for 29 years before getting married in 2011, but Joy regularly called Steve her “spousal equivalent,” per Nicki Swift.
Still, Joy explained she had many reasons to wait to get married. She revealed that she wanted to wait until same-sex marriage was legalized in a 2011 episode of The View. “It did have an influence on me. It brought to my consciousness why gays needed to get married And I thought it was a good reason for me to get married. And so did Steve, so we did it,” she said, via Digital Spy.
Joy has often been very vocal about her support for the LGBTQIA+ community. “I identify with the fact that gay people, once they are ‘out’, have to deal with that — they want to be honest, and yet people are out to get them,” she said in a 2021 interview with Gay City News.
They Tied the Knot in an Intimate Ceremony in 2011
Joy and Steve eventually tied the knot in 2011. She joked that she wanted to be on the cover of “Brides’ AARP edition” in a 2012 interview with The New York Times. She also revealed that she didn’t want to have to worry about having access to each other in case of an emergency. “If I’m on my death bed, I need Steve to be able to come in there and sit with me and also be able to talk to the doctors and not have them say, ‘Oh, you’re not legally married,’ which is ridiculous. That was one of the main reasons I wanted to get married,” she told Gay City News. “The other reason was I wanted to have a party.”
The couple exchanged vows in New York City on August 11, 2011, per People. The ceremony was before The View’s 15th season premiered. The pair had originally planned on getting married in 2009, but Joy got “cold feet,” before the ceremony.
Joy Often Talks About Steve on ‘The View’
While The View is mostly made up of cultural and political discussions, Joy and her co-hosts often speak about their partners on the show. The comedian regularly shares hilarious anecdotes about her and Steve’s romance, and she’ll occasionally speak about their relationship when sharing her opinion on different relationship-based subjects.
Joy has joked about her and Steve’s age gap on the show quite a few times. Steve is seven years younger than her, and she encouraged other women to date younger men in an October 2021 episode. “I believe a woman should marry a man who’s younger than she is. Steve is seven years younger than me, and at this point, it’s really paying off, because carrying the bundles — I’m not wheeling anybody around. Let them wheel me around,” she said.
It’s clear that the pair like to keep a good sense of humor about one another. When Joy fell and missed her chair in March 2022, she called out Steve. “My husband is at home laughing now. I bet,” she quipped.
Joy Was Married Before Steve
While her relationship with Steve has been long-lasting, Joy was married before her career in showbiz took off. In fact, her last name Behar is actually from her first husband, Joe Behar. Her maiden name is Occhiuto. Joe was a college professor when he and Joy got married in 1965. During their marriage, they had their daughter, Eve. The pair ended up getting divorced in 1981. Eve also has a son of her own, Luca, making Joy a grandmother.
