Who Is Joy Behar's Husband? All About Steve Janowitz
Comedian and talk show host Joy Behar married her husband, Steve Janowitz, after dating for 29 years
As a longtime host of The View and a comedian, Joy Behar has made a career of making her opinions known. But behind her polarizing persona, she is balanced out by her quiet and private husband, middle school teacher Steve Janowitz.
Janowitz is the second husband of Brooklyn-born Behar, who cited her previous marriage as one of the reasons she waited 29 years to tie the knot again. She shares a daughter, Eve, with her first husband, Joe Behar.
These days, Behar and Janowitz live in their Hamptons home with their dog, a Shih-Tzu named Bernie after Bernie Sanders.
What else is there to know about Joy Behar's husband, Steve Janowitz? Read on to find out more.
He’s a teacher
Janowitz is a schoolteacher, something he has in common with his wife. However, Janowitz teaches middle school math, while Behar previously taught English.
Behar was also a teacher in the ’60s and ’70s before she started her career in television. She went into teaching after earning a master’s degree in English education at Stony Brook University and taught English at Lindenhurst High School in New York.
She also taught at an elementary school, which she joked about being fired from in a stand-up show.
“They’d send me to one of these goody-goody schools where the kids would just snitch on each other all day long. I hate that ... I’m Italian, we don’t f------ snitch,” she said.
“‘Ms. Behar, he said ‘F’, ” she repeated in a mocking tone, mimicking a student. “They were relentless. Finally one day, I say who the f--- said F? And I got fired ... they snitched on me!”
They met at a semi-nudist colony
On an episode of The View, Behar revealed her husband was naked the first time she saw him.
“I don’t know if you know this about me, but I met my husband at a semi-nudist colony. It’s true,” she said matter-of-factly, speaking to guest Andrew Yang. “He was naked, I was not. Because for a man to see me naked, I have to be in his will."
Behar clarified that when they actually spoke for the first time later that night, Janowitz was fully dressed for the movie night the semi-nudist colony was hosting but she recognized him from earlier in the day.
She laughed, recanting the surprised reactions she gets whenever she tells the origin story of her and her husband.
“People say, ‘Joy, really? That twitching, crazy woman on The View?’ ”
They were together for almost 30 years before getting married
Behar and Janowitz dated for nearly 30 years before they married in a private ceremony on Aug. 11, 2011, in New York City.
In 2009, she announced they had plans to wed, calling him her “spousal equivalent" — but later that year, she said got “cold feet” and broke off the engagement. Another reason Behar put off getting married was to avoid having in-laws.
“I waited until all the parents were dead,” she said, speaking to Rachael Ray on her show in 2011. “So I have no in-laws at all. He has none and I have none. ’Cause marriage is mostly about in-laws, I find. They always want you to visit them and come for lasagna.”
Behar also noted that she and Janowitz wanted to wait for gay marriage to become legalized before tying the knot.
"It did have an influence on me. It brought to my consciousness why gays needed to get married. And I thought it was a good reason for me to get married ... So did Steve, so we did it,” she said on The View.
She also read out a list of reasons why she and Janowitz finally got married, including jokes like, "Joy is sick of Barbara Walters bugging her to get married," and, "Joy is expecting twins."
On her wedding to Janowitz being better late than never, she added: “If he was going to get down on one knee, I wanted it to be during the time when he could still get up from one knee!"
In an interview with Good Morning America a month after her wedding, Behar was asked if she felt like she was on her honeymoon, which she answered with a swift “no.”
“Do I look like a blushing bride to you? It’s been 29 years,” she said. “I feel like I did something that I probably needed to do ... 29 years of warm-up is sufficient.”
He’s a stepdad to Joy’s daughter
In 1962, Behar married Joe Behar, a college professor, and they welcomed a daughter, Eve Behar Scotti, before divorcing in 1981.
Eve was born in Long Island, New York, on Nov. 26, 1970; when Janowitz and Behar started dating in 1982, she was 12.
Eve worked in television production in the ’90s but left her TV dreams behind to pursue ceramic art. She studied in Florence and Canada before starting her own practice at home in the Hamptons called Eve Behar Ceramics.
In 2007, Eve married Alphonso Anthony Scotti, and in 2011, the couple welcomed a son, Luca.
“It's like, you know, it's just like you're in love again,” Behar said of her grandson in 2011, speaking to Anderson Cooper. “You know when you're first in love with a guy, and you're running towards each other in slow motion. You just can't get enough of each other. It's like that, only it's your baby.”
He supports his wife’s career behind the scenes
Janowitz is a devoted husband and supporter of his wife’s endeavors, including her work as a host on The View. In fact, he even offers technical support on her craft.
In April 2020, while The View was filmed and hosted virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Behar experienced technical difficulties getting her camera to work on the air. But fortunately, her husband was able to help get her back up and running.
The show aired a behind-the-scenes look at Behar’s camera and mic mishap, which pictured Janowitz coming to her rescue.
“You have to know, Whoopi, that happened like 10 seconds before we went on the air,” Behar said to her laughing co-host.
“And poor Steve — who’s a teacher, he’s not a cameraman — he’s doing all the technical stuff over here! I mean, he’s gonna have to join the union with Bob Lampel,” she continued, referencing The View’s technical manager, who died in 2021.
A blooper reel on The View's YouTube channel also shows Behar telling her husband, “Steve, we can hear you — we’re on the air,” as he speaks to her off-camera.
He always has Behar’s back
From the beginning of their relationship, Behar gave Janowitz credit for being a supportive partner. Even Behar’s former co-host Meghan McCain acknowledged Janowitz for his protective nature when it comes to his wife.
“You have given me very good marriage advice about having to deal with a woman in the public eye and a husband who has to deal with a woman like us — who [are] very polarizing — and their reactions in the media,” McCain said during an episode of The View.
“I know Steve is as protective of you as Ben is of me,” McCain said, referencing their respective husbands. “And you’ve given me really amazing solid advice that is very helpful.”
His support is not limited to being protective; Janowitz isn't afraid to get his hands dirty either. In 2020, he helped Behar dye her hair when salons were closed.
“I look like a love child between Cyndi Lauper and Carrot Top,” Behar said on The View, showing off her freshly dyed ginger roots.
“But I mean, what a guy. He’s like a Martin Scorsese and Vidal Sassoon all rolled into one, it’s fantastic,” Behar said, praising her husband.
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