Ana Navarro officially became a permanent co-host on The View as the talk show enters Season 26. The Nicaraguan-born political commentator had been a weekly guest co-host since 2018 but had started making appearances as a contributor since 2013. When Whoopi Goldberg made the announcement she said that Navarro was “overqualified to be called our guest anymore.”
After a clip of Navarro’s best moments over the years aired, the talk show host said that it was now time to “finally [put] a ring on it and [make] it official.” She firstly thanked all the fans of the ABC daytime program saying she had “read, heard, and seen” all of them. Although Navarro won’t appear full-time because of “other work commitments,” her life with her husband in Miami, and a “very clingy do,” she will make more regular appearances.
Navarro went on to thank the producers of the show and delivered a passionate speech about the representation of Latino immigrants.
“I’ve thought about it long and hard. As you all know, most weeks I’m on a plane at least four times a week, and I spent countless hours on planes, at airports, in hotels — sometimes it gets lonely,” she added. “But I also know it’s a huge, enormous, incomparable privilege to be part of a 25-year institution. And whether people like it or not, whether some people acknowledge it or not, it is the relevance and the importance and the platform that The View represents.”
Navarro continued, “And I, and we at this table, have spent a lot of time talking about representation and saying representation matters. And that means that when a little Latina immigrant girl born in Chinandega, Nicaragua, who came to this country at the age of 8 as a political refugee and found her home here, gets the opportunity and the chance to have a platform — you grab it with both hands and you run with it.”
Watch Ana Navarro’s speech after being named a permanent co-host on The View.
Over on Instagram, Navarro said that it was after the cast trip to the Bahamas where the panel hosted a whole week of “Hot Topics,” that “sealed the deal” for her in accepting the permanent co-host gig.
“It felt like we’d become The View Ya-Yas, the sisterhood of the traveling mouths,” she wrote. “Sometimes we disagree, but we respect each other. Whoopi, thank you for sharing your wisdom. Joy, thank you for your guidance. Sarah, thank you for your happy sanity. Sunny, thank you for your encouragement.”
Closing her statement, Navarro shared with her fans what they could expect from her in the upcoming season of The View.
“You’ll get from me what I’ve always tried to be: a consistent and authentic voice -with a Latina accent- calling balls & strikes, and speaking truth to power and finding some humor in our crazy world. See you in September!” she ended.
Alongside Navarro’s promotion, Alyssa Farah Griffin was also given a permanent spot at the “Hot Topics” table, effectively taking over the seat left behind by conservative commentator Meghan McCain.