Who Is Joy Behar’s Husband? All About Steve Janowitz

As a long-time host View and a comedian, Joy Behar has made a career out of speaking her mind. But behind her polarizing persona, she is balanced by her quiet and withdrawn husband, high school teacher Steve Janowitz.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 remarry. She shares a daughter, Eve, with her first husband, Joe Behar.

These days, Behar and Janowitz live in their home in the Hamptons with their dog, a Shih Tzu named Bernie after Bernie Sanders.

What else should you know about Joy Behar’s husband, Steve Janowitz? Read on to learn more.

He is a teacher

Steve Janowitz and Joy Behar attend a private dinner for Bob Mackie for his upcoming auction at Christie’s.

Sam Bolton/Patrick McMullan/Getty

Janowitz is a teacher, which he has in common with his wife. However, Janowitz teaches high school math, while Behar previously taught English.

Behar was also a teacher in the 60s and 70s before starting a career in television. She began teaching after earning her MA in English Education from Stony Brook University and taught English at Lindenhurst High School in New York.

She also taught at the elementary school, for which she joked that she was fired in a stand-up show.

“They would send me to one of those good schools where the kids would just snitch on each other all day. I hate it… I’m Italian, we don’t—— cheat,” she said.

“‘Ms. Behar, he said ‘F,’” she repeated in a mocking tone, imitating the student. “They were relentless. Finally one day, I say who the hell said F? And I got fired… they snitched on me!”

They met in a semi-nudist colony

Joy Behar and Steve Janowitz smiling.

Judie Burstein/Globe Photos/ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy

In the episode ViewBehar revealed that her husband was naked when she first saw him.

“I don’t know if you know this about me, but I met my husband in a semi-nudist colony. It’s true, she said importantly, talking to guest Andrew Yang. “He was naked, I wasn’t. Because for a man to see me naked, I have to please him.”

Behar explained that when they actually spoke for the first time later that night, Janowitz was fully clothed for a movie night the semi-nudist colony was hosting, but she recognized him from earlier that day.

She laughed, dismissing the surprised reactions she gets whenever she tells her and her husband’s origin story.

“People say, ‘Joy, really? She jerks, crazy woman na View?’ ”

Before the wedding, they were together for almost 30 years

Steve Janowitz and Joy Behar attend the Welcome to Gulu Show and Benefit.

PATRICK MCMULLAN/Patrick McMullan/Getty

Behar and Janowitz dated for nearly 30 years before tying the knot in a private ceremony on August 11, 2011, in New York City.

In 2009, she announced they planned to marry, calling him her “spousal equivalent” — but later that year, she said she was “getting cold feet” and called off the engagement. Another reason why Behar postponed the wedding was to avoid in-laws.

“I waited until all the parents were dead,” she said, speaking to Rachael Ray on her show in 2011. “So I don’t have any in-laws at all. He doesn’t and I don’t. Because I believe that marriage is mostly about in-laws. They always want you to visit them and come for lasagna.”

Behar also noted that she and Janowitz wanted to wait until gay marriage became legal before tying the knot.

“It had an impact on me. It made me realize why gay people should get married. And I thought that was a good reason to get married… As did Steve, so we did,” she said on View.

She also read a list of reasons why she and Janowitz finally got married, including jokes like, “Joy is sick of Barbara Walters pestering her to get married” and “Joy is expecting twins.”

On her wedding to Janowitz, better late than never, she added, “If he was going to get down on one knee, I wanted it to be while he could still get up on one knee!”

In an interview with Good morning America a month after the wedding, Behar was asked if she felt like she was on her honeymoon, to which she replied “no”.

“Do I look like a blushing bride to you? It’s been 29 years,” she said. “I feel like I did something I probably should have done … 29 years of warming up is enough.”

He is Joy’s daughter’s stepfather

Steve Janowitz, Joy Behar, her daughter Eve Behar and grandson Luca attend the 6th Annual Family Affair.

Sonia Moskowitz/WireImage

In 1962, Behar married Joe Behar, a university professor, and they had a daughter, Eva Behar Scotti, before divorcing in 1981.

Eve was born in Long Island, New York on November 26, 1970; when Janowitz and Behar started dating in 1982, she was 12 years old.

Eve worked in television production in the 90s, but left her TV dreams to devote herself to 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 Alphonse Anthony Scotti, and in 2011, the couple had a son, Luca.

“It’s like, you know, like you’re in love again,” Behar said of her grandson in 2011, speaking to Anderson Cooper. “You know when you’re in love with a guy for the first time and you’re running towards each other in slow motion. You just can’t get enough of each other. That’s right, except it’s your child.”

Behind the scenes, he supports his wife’s career

Joy Behar and Steve Janowitz Visit Carolina Herrera Host Screening of ‘My One and Only’

PATRICK MCMULLAN/Patrick McMullan/Getty

Janowitz is a devoted husband and supports his wife’s endeavors, including her work as a presenter on View. In fact, he even offers tech support for her skill.

While in April 2020 View was filmed and hosted virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Behar had technical difficulties getting the camera to work on air. But luckily, her husband was able to help her get back to work.

The show featured a behind-the-scenes look at Behar’s mishap with the camera and microphone, showing Janowitz rescuing her.

“You have to know, Whoopi, it happened about 10 seconds before we went on the air,” Behar told the smiling co-host.

“And poor Steve — who’s a teacher, he’s not a cameraman — he does all the technical stuff here! I mean, he’s going to have to join the union with Bob Lampel,” she continued, mentioning Viewtechnical manager, who died in 2021.

Wrong game View‘with The YouTube channel also shows Behar telling her husband, “Steve, we hear you — we’re on the air,” as he speaks to her off-camera.

He always has Behar’s back

Joy Behar and husband Steve Janowitz backstage after the Off-Broadway opening of Joy Behar’s ‘Me, My Mouth & I’.

Walter McBride/WireImage

From the beginning of their relationship, Behar credited Janowitz as a supportive partner. Even Behar’s former co-host Meghan McCain acknowledged Janowitz’s protective nature when it comes to his wife.

“You gave me very good marriage advice about how I have to deal with a woman in public 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 one episode View.

“I know Steve is as protective of you as Ben is of me,” McCain said, referring to their husbands. “And you gave me some really amazing solid advice that’s really helpful.”

His support is not limited to protectionism; Janowitz isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty either. In 2020, he helped Behar dye his hair when the salons were closed.

“I look like the love child of Cyndi Lauper and Carrot Top,” Behar went on to say Viewshowing off her freshly dyed ginger roots.

“But I mean, what a guy. He’s like Martin Scorsese and Vidal Sassoon combined, it’s fantastic,” Behar said in praise of her husband.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education