“The View”’s Joy Behar slams Martin Sheen’s ‘big mistake’ reporting Charlie Sheen to police: ‘You call the doctor’

Key Points

• Joy Behar said Martin Sheen made a “big mistake” turning his son, Charlie Sheen, in to authorities over addiction.

• Sheen told Michael Strahan that, at the time, “it felt like the biggest betrayal.”

• “How do you get the help that you need in jail?” The View cohost asked.

The View cohost Joy Behar‘s instincts as an Italian-American mama bear led her to lash out at Hollywood actor Martin Sheen over his handling of son Charlie Sheen‘s past substance addiction.

On the day of Netflix’s Aka Charlie Sheen docuseries release, the talk show stars reacted to 60-year-old Charlie’s recent interview with ABC News’ Michael Strahan, during which the star reflected on his dad turning him in to authorities for violating his probation following a 1998 overdose.

The View played footage from the interview, which also shows Martin, 85, telling reporters that, “My son was admitted yesterday, as the result of a drug overdose,” while Strahan asked Charlie how he felt about his dad’s actions.

“It felt like the biggest betrayal you could possibly endure,” Charlie said, adding that he “saw it as love eventually, but in the moment,” it didn’t feel like it.

Back on The View, moderator Whoopi Goldberg asked her fellow panelists if they’d think of Martin’s actions as betrayal, with Behar immediately replying with a “yes,” while conservative cohost Alyssa Farah Griffin said, “absolutely not.”

“It’s called The View, and my view as an Italian mother is you do not turn your children in, especially if they have a drug problem or mental health problem, you send them to a shrink or hospital,” the 82-year-old told Griffin. “You don’t call the police. Martin Sheen made a big mistake. Your child is suffering, they have an illness, you do not send them to police, sorry.”

Griffin, 36, explained her stance, citing her sister as a “recovering addict” who’s been 12 years clean as the foundation for her opinion.

“The most loving thing a parent can do is tough love and get you off the streets and the help that you need. You’re a danger to yourself,” Griffin said, while Behar asked, “How do you get the help that you need in jail?”

Sara Haines backed up Griffin’s stance, telling Behar, “I think sometimes parents bury the bodies, don’t turn the kid in, and enable their child,” she said, while Behar joked, “That’s not what I said!”

Haines continued, “When you enable a child for decades, you are part of the problem that ends up living in your house, incapable of employment, not being able to support a family or see a life that you wanted for that kid, because you helped do it.”

Legal expert Sunny Hostin took Behar’s side, citing the Sheen family’s monetary resources as a means to “get your kid into a hospital” instead of to police — a point that Goldberg audibly sighed at.

“I’m sorry, I’m going to shut this down right now,” Goldberg said, frustratedly waving her arms as the audience gasped. “Because if you don’t think they did everything. When I tell you, they did everything to get him straight. This was the last straw. Because there was nothing left, and what they didn’t want and thank God it didn’t happen, is they didn’t want him to die on the street, so that’s why that went down. Every family has to handle this differently because every addiction is different.”

She said that she’s also “closer to it because, having been an addict, I understand an addict’s way of thinking. We can BS you like nobody’s business.”

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to a representative for Martin for comment.

Charlie’s documentary, memoir The Book of Sheen, and recent media appearances has generated significant interest in the actor’s past, for a range of recollections including a time he saw a water buffalo getting its head chopped off on the set of Apocalypse Now, sexual encounters with men, and a moment he expressed regret over not reaching out to Matthew Perry before the Friends star’s 2023 death from a ketamine overdose.

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“I was going to call him, just reach out and try to meet him up for a cup of coffee or something,” Sheen told Page Six. “And regrettably, I didn’t. And Jesus, three weeks later, he died.”

The View airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET/10 a.m. PT on ABC.

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