Sara Haines is navigating a painful loss in her family with love and compassion.
The View cohost explained that her unexpected absence from the Sept. 16 episode followed the death of her husband Max Shifrin’s father.
“I wanted to share why I was missing yesterday,” Haines said during the Sept. 17 episode of The View. “My father-in-law passed away. He’s been in hospice for a week, so we knew it was coming, but I think the second that landed it kind of allowed a load you’re carrying for so long to gush out.”
The 48-year-old opened up about the toll the news had taken on her, saying it left her feeling “heart sick” and “head sick.”
MORE STORY: Backlash Over Scottish First Minister John Swinney’s New Alliance With Sinn Féin
“It’s the chapter we’re in, and we all be a part of this club eventually,” she continued. “But, wow, it’s brutal.”
Haines, who shares children Alec, 10, Sandra, 8, and Caleb, 7, with Shifrin, also expressed sympathy for her husband as he mourns the loss of the parent she described as the 43-year-old’s “North Star.”