‘The View’ Star Meghan McCain Describes Meeting Her Adopted Sister Bridget for the First Time
Meghan McCain of The View comes from a big family. With seven siblings, the talk show co-host is used to large groups.
McCain was approximately 7 years old when her mother brought home a baby sister from an orphanage in Bangladesh. In a previous interview, she recalled the day she met her new sibling.
Cindy McCain makes a connection
McCain’s father, the late Senator John McCain, ran for president in 2008. Her mother Cindy introduced him in a speech in Folk City, Florida that year and told the story of how the adoption of their daughter Bridget came to pass.
“I was working one day … in Bangladesh,” Cindy said in the speech, according to the New Yorker. “I stumbled upon a little girl in Mother Teresa’s orphanage, and she had a really bad cleft palate. She was sick and tiny and she was only ten weeks old. And I got to know her a little bit, and I was with her for quite a while.”
Working with the famous humanitarian, Cindy was presented with an opportunity she couldn’t turn down.
“Mother Teresa—as only she could do at that time—prevailed upon me and said, ‘You know, you can get help for her,'” Cindy recalled. “‘You could, you can get her out’ . . . and, being a tenacious woman, I thought, ‘Yeah! I can. Sure.’”
Meghan McCain’s mom brings home a surprise
Sharing in her story that she “realized that this child had chosen me and I could not give her up,” Cindy revealed a significant detail about bringing Bridget home.
“What you don’t know about this story is I didn’t tell my husband,” the mom of eight confessed. “I landed in Phoenix, Arizona, with this baby in my arms, and in front of a thousand reporters and a whole lot of people he whispered down to me and said, ‘Well, where’s she going to go?’ And I said, ‘I thought she’d come to our house.’”
Cindy’s purpose in describing her husband’s reaction was to give the audience an inside view of his character.
“And he looked at her and he loved her just the way I have ever since,” she explained. “I think that says a great deal about the man.”
‘The View’ co-host meets her new sibling
In an interview with the Kunhardt Film Foundation in 2017, The View co-host recounted Bridget’s homecoming.
“I remember when my mom brought her home and she had a cleft palette and clearly needed surgery,” McCain said. “I remember thinking that I was excited I had a new sister. We shared a room and I remember thinking
that—she—it’s weird like how children just sort of absorb things, that she
was just my sister. That, oh ok, I have a new sister and she’s here. That’s a
real testament to kids and how they just don’t question things.”
McCain noted that Bridget required extra attention due to her health issues. “I remember her needing a lot of care because she was obviously unhealthy,” the television personality shared. “When she came back, they had to feed her with a syringe because of her mouth. I just remember it being as simple as you have a new sister and her name is Bridget and she’s here.”
As for her mother’s unconventional way of bringing Bridget home unannounced, McCain took it all in stride along with the rest of her family.
“My mom brought her home and was like, ‘you have a new daughter’
and [John] was like, ‘ok,'” McCain explained. “That’s so the relationship though. She’ll make like big decisions, and then be like, ‘This is what’s happening.’ He’s like, ‘Ok.'”
The Republican Senator passed away in August 2018, after 28 years of marriage to Cindy.
