Usman Salis
Joy Behar has amassed quite a fortune during her decades in entertainment, with the sharp-tongued comedian and TV personality reportedly sitting on a cool $30 million thanks to her long-running gig on "The View" and various other showbiz ventures.
How Joy Behar Got Her Start: The Early Hustle
Before Joy Behar became the wealthy TV star we know today, she was just Josephine Victoria Occhiuto from Brooklyn, hustling like the rest of us. Born in October 1942, Joy took a pretty conventional route at first. After getting her BA in sociology from Queens College in 1964 and an MA in English education from Stony Brook in 1966, she landed her first real paycheck as a high school English teacher in NYC.
Teaching wasn't exactly making her rich – back in the late '60s, she was probably pulling in somewhere between $5,500 and $8,000 a year (that's about $45,000-$65,000 in today's money). While she got to flex her natural wit in the classroom, she definitely wasn't building any serious wealth during these early years. Still, dealing with teenagers all day probably helped sharpen that quick comeback style that would eventually make her famous and fill her bank account.
Things took a dramatic turn in the mid-1970s when Joy had a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy. Talk about a wake-up call. After recovering, she decided life was too short not to chase her dreams and took the plunge into comedy – a gutsy move that would take years to pay off financially, but eventually did in a big way.
Joy Behar's Climb: From Open Mics to TV Breaks
Joy's path from underpaid teacher to wealthy media personality was anything but overnight. After ditching the classroom, she cobbled together a living with random jobs – including answering phones at "Good Morning America" – while chasing stand-up gigs. Throughout the late '70s and early '80s, she was grinding it out in NYC comedy clubs, probably making a measly $50-$200 per set when she could even get booked. By her own admission, these were some seriously lean years financially.
Things started looking up in the mid-'80s when Joy began landing small TV spots. Her first real break came in 1987 with a hosting gig on Lifetime's "Way Off Broadway." While the exact numbers aren't public, she was likely making somewhere in the $50,000-$100,000 range annually – a nice step up from teaching but nowhere near the millions she'd eventually command.
Joy kept climbing the entertainment ladder with her own Lifetime show and appearances on NBC's "Baby Boom." By the early '90s, she'd established herself as a solid TV personality with a growing reputation, bringing home decent but not spectacular paychecks. Her bank account was getting healthier, but the really life-changing money was still around the corner.
When Joy Behar Hit the Big Time: "The View" Changed Everything
Everything changed for Joy Behar in 1997 when Barbara Walters tapped her as one of the original co-hosts for "The View." This gig became the foundation of her wealth-building journey. Her starting salary wasn't anything crazy by TV standards – probably around $200,000-$300,000 a year – but it gave her something way more valuable: steady exposure and job security.
As "The View" blew up in popularity through the 2000s, Joy's paycheck grew accordingly. By the mid-2000s, she was reportedly pulling in about $1 million annually. When she temporarily bounced from the show in 2013, she'd become one of its highest-paid stars, with some industry insiders saying she was making between $1.5-$2 million per year.
When she came back to "The View" in 2015, she negotiated an even sweeter deal, reportedly worth $2.5-$3 million annually – easily her peak earning years. On top of her talk show money, Joy was hustling with book deals (dropping titles like "Joy Shtick" and "The Great Gasbag"), occasional acting roles, and her own short-lived CNN show. All together, these ventures pushed her yearly income well past the $3 million mark during her best years.
Joy Behar's Money Situation Today: Still Cashing Serious Checks
These days, Joy Behar is still enjoying the fruits of her labor, with reliable sources pegging her net worth around $30 million. At 82 years old (as of 2025), she remains one of the top earners on "The View," reportedly banking between $5-$7 million annually – ironically making more in her 80s than she ever did in her younger years.
Her fat contract reflects just how valuable she is to the show and how much audiences still love her. Beyond her salary, Joy's made some smart real estate moves that have paid off big time. She owns a sweet pad in the Hamptons worth around $4.75 million and a Manhattan apartment valued at roughly $2.4 million. These property investments have diversified her wealth nicely.
Joy also still collects residual payments, gets paid for special appearances, and has various investments working for her. While she's not hanging with the billionaire crowd, she's built herself a fortune that puts her firmly in the upper echelon of TV personalities – especially impressive considering she didn't even start her entertainment career until she was 40.
Joy Behar's Success Playbook: Wisdom from Someone Who Made It Late
What makes Joy Behar's financial success story so damn interesting is how she made it big starting so late. Through her interviews and books, she's dropped some serious wisdom about finding success when society tells you your prime years are behind you.
Perhaps her most powerful message is about resilience and reinvention. Joy often points out that starting her entertainment career at 40 – practically ancient by Hollywood standards – required some serious thick skin. "I was 40 when I started doing stand-up," she's said. "I knew who I was by then, which helped me handle rejection better than I would have in my 20s." This toughness let her weather the broke years of early comedy without throwing in the towel.
Joy's also big on keeping it real. Rather than trying to mold herself into what she thought audiences wanted, she doubled down on her naturally sharp, sometimes biting humor. This authenticity eventually became her biggest selling point, especially on "The View," where her unfiltered takes became her trademark. "I never tried to be anything but myself," Joy has said. "People can smell fake a mile away."
Despite her growing bank account, Joy maintained a surprisingly frugal mindset compared to many celebrities, once cracking, "I'm still too cheap to pay full price for anything – once a struggling comic, always a struggling comic." This careful approach to money helped her build and hang onto wealth even when her career hit bumps.
Finally, Joy's a huge believer in never stopping the learning process. While staying true to herself, she's evolved with changing times, successfully jumping from stand-up to TV to author. "You can teach an old dog new tricks," she's quipped. "You just have to be willing to learn them." This adaptability has kept her relevant – and employed – well into her 80s, still stacking cash at an age when most people are living off retirement funds.
Joy Behar's journey from Brooklyn schoolteacher to wealthy media star shows that success often doesn't follow the timeline we're told it should. Her story proves that with persistence, authenticity, and the guts to take risks, you can build serious wealth even when starting a new career in middle age – something worth remembering in today's world where career pivots are increasingly the norm.
Usman Salis
