Sunny Hostin Had a ‘Breakdown’ After Dropping Daughter Off at College: ‘Crying in the Hotel Room’

The View’s Sunny Hostin admitted that being an empty nester has been a very difficult adjustment for her.

She opened up during an episode of The View’s “Behind the Table” podcast on Monday, September 9, about taking her daughter, Paloma Hostin, to college.

“On August 19, I dropped my kid off at school,” the Summer on Sag Harbor author began. “And then I had a breakdown, and I’m crying in the hotel room because she cried. And had she not cried, Paloma, I would not have cried, I was almost OK. So, I’m going through that.”

Sunny, 55, admitted that it’s “hard” being an empty nester. However, her husband, Emmanuel Hostin, has been dealing with it a bit differently than her. “He thinks it’s great,” the TV personality noted.

In addition to Paloma, 18, Sunny and Manny share son Gabriel Hostin, 22.

“I didn’t know that empty nesting grief was a real thing,” Sunny explained, adding that she started getting articles from her friends about it after her daughter went off to school.

“Some women even go through depression, and they start therapy, and they’re institutionalized,” she added. “It’s a real thing because when you identify yourself as a mommy for the past 22 years and all of a sudden that changes, even though, yes, I’m a lawyer and a journalist and I’m still a mommy, but the day-to-day momification, that’s what my kids call it, where you tidy up their room and cook dinner and stuff, I’m kind of a traditional mom in that sense. I really like spending time with my children. I thought Manny did too.”

Sunny explained that her husband has been walking around the house in a good mood lately.

“He feels that he got his wife back. He’s like, ‘I got my wife back,’ and I’m like, ‘No, you have your wife without her children.’”

She said that he does 40 miles of cycling at 5 a.m., takes off his clothes and makes coffee each day.

“He just loves it so much,” Sunny said of her husband’s outlook on being an empty nester. “He’s pretty frugal, but he’s like, ‘Let’s order in. What are we having for dinner?’”

“I’m just sitting there, like, who is this person?” she reflected. “It’s a honeymoon phase for him. A lot of my friends have told me that I need to embrace that, and so I’m trying to work on that even though I’m still feeling the grief part of it.”

Sunny said that she spoke to Kelly Ripa about being an empty nester after her kids, Michael, Lola and Joaquin, moved out of the house she shared with husband Mark Consuelos. Kelly, 53, told her that being an empty nest was “great” and that the kids always come back to visit.

Sunny said she texts her kids every morning now. “My daughter finally said, ‘Mom, I’m fine.’”

“So I think that means I should stop the texting and do more stalking,” the mom of two joked.