The journalist discusses getting into a debate on 'The View' about President Joe Biden.
Lisa Ling recently made her return to The View as a guest co-host, but don't expect her to be a permanent fixture on the daytime talk show.
The 48-year-old journalist, who co-hosted The View from 1999 to 2002, was a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live Monday, and recalled what it was like to return to the panel of ladies, and how it differed from when she was on the program.
"You really have to express your opinion so vociferously on that show, and in the age of social media, you're just scrutinized so severely," Ling explained.
She told Kimmel that on her first day back on The View, she got into a heated argument when she said that President Joe Biden "should apologize to the American people" for calling Fox News' Peter Doocy a "stupid son of a b**ch" on a hot mic.
Ling said the "little debate" was written up as she was "causing chaos" on the show.
"I get along great with the women," she told Kimmel, before adding, "Although, during a commercial break, Joy [Behar] did tell me that I was talking too much."
Kimmel said he thought they may have too many people on the panel, to which Ling responded, "It is really difficult to get a word in edgewise. I did a little better this time. I mean, I was 26 when I did the show the first time around."
The late-night host also asked about a story that Prince used to watch The View and was really taken with Ling. "One day, our assistant gets a call from a man who said, 'Um yes, he would like to speak with Ms. Ling.' And our assistant was like, 'Who's he? What are you talking about?' Finally he said, 'The artist formally known as Prince would like to speak to Lisa.' Knowing how much I loved Prince, she said, 'OK, here's her cell phone number,'" Ling recalled. "So, he gets on the phone and I hear this voice ...and it was him. I could tell clearly. And he asked me if I wanted to go to a TLC concert with him. So I'm like, 'Yeah, yes, I would love to.'"
Ling said Prince then said he was sending a car for her and instructed her to come to his hotel, noting that he was staying under the name Karl Marx. When she met the music legend at the door of his hotel room, he complimented her shoes.
"It felt like he wanted to try them on," she told Kimmel. "We went to the show, it was amazing, and then we went back to his room. I wasn't really concerned that he was going to try anything because that was when he was going through his Jehovah Witness stage. ...So we ended up talking until about five o'clock in the morning about philosophy and having very, very serious discussions. And that was it. I left Karl Marx's room."
Ling said Prince asked her back over the next night and they talked until five o'clock in the morning and had a "great, incredibly stimulating discussion." When she returned to The View, she mentioned a past relationship on the show, to which Prince called her and asked about why she brought that up. Ling said she never spoke to him after that phone call.
"I still think to this day that he is the greatest artist who ever lived," Ling said of Prince. "But it was a little bit of a weird interaction."
Ling isn't the only former co-host returning to The View this season. ET confirmed that Meredith Vieira, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Star Jones will be back on the show this month.
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