The Emmynominated actress, comedian, and talk show host recalled wise words from her former cohost, Barbara Walters, that set her down a path toward politics. S

The Emmy-nominated actress, comedian, and talk show host recalled wise words from her former cohost, Barbara Walters, that set her down a path toward politics.

Sherri Shepherd explains why she didn't start voting until she joined The View

The Emmy-nominated actress, comedian, and talk show host recalled wise words from her former cohost, Barbara Walters, that set her down a path toward politics.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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on September 30, 2025 6:04 p.m. ET

Sherri Shepherd and Barbara Walters on 'The View' in 2014. Credit:

Lou Rocco/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

Sherri Shepherd says she didn't vote until joining *The View* — and that one of her fellow cohosts was instrumental in helping her realize the importance of performing that civic duty.

"I was a Jehovah's Witness, so I didn't start voting until I got on *The View*," Shepherd shared on Tuesday's episode of *The Jamie Kern Lima Show*. The Emmy-nominated talk show host, comedian, and actress explained that she was "not into politics," but "Barbara Walters said something to me that made me do it."

When the late broadcast journalist and longtime cohost of the popular daytime talk show realized that her new cohost "didn't know anything about politics," Shepherd said Walters came to her and simply suggested, "'Dear, read a book.'"**

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"All I knew was what the church taught me. That's what it was. I didn't think for myself. I just knew what the church had taught me or what I had learned when I was a Witness," Shepherd elaborated.

The 58-year-old Chicago native previously revealed in her first year as a *View *cohost that 2008 would be "my first time I'll be voting because I was in a religion where we didn't vote." Members of the Christian denomination are encouraged to "remain politically neutral for religious reasons," according to official Church doctrine, based on interpretations of several Biblical passages, and the idea that "by remaining neutral, we are able to speak freely to people of all political persuasions about the good news of God's Kingdom."****

Sherri Shepherd hosting 'Sherri' in 2025.

Talk WW Productions, Inc

But Shepherd recalled that when Walters told her to get herself educated, "What I realized is sometimes we have to get out of where we live, we have to go travel the world, we have to meet people that are different from us. Because when you don't, that's how you get prejudice and that's how you get judgmental. When you don't meet people that are not like you, when you meet people that are different from you."

Shepherd credited the shift in her political perspective to Walters as well as current cohosts Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg, recalling the former telling her, "'Sherri, the moment you open your mouth, half the world is going to hate you. So go by what you feel and what you think.'"

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*The View *provided the daily daytime home for Walters from 1997 to 2014. Shepherd joined the ABC program in 2007, eventually leaving the same year as Walters, who died in 2022 at the age of 93.**

You can watch Shepherd's full interview on *The Jamie Kern Lima Show *above.

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