Lisa Ling was a sugar baby after leaving The View, she says

Even after establishing herself as a respected journalist, Lisa Ling said she was enchanted a sugar daddy.

“I met ‘Tom,’ who was much older and more successful than me. We started dating in my early 30s at a time when my career had me traveling all over the world to report stories,” Lisa revealed in a new column for CNN. “I was neither looking for a relationship nor cared to be in one.”

By that time in her life, Lisa had already reported from war zones and served on The View‘s panel for three years. Yet, she said she was still enamored of the luxurious lifestyle Tom could offer.

“One week we’d be cruising the Mediterranean in a massive full-service yacht, the next we’d be on a shopping excursion in Rome,” she said. “It started to become glaringly apparent that I was being seduced by a lifestyle. I was becoming a sugar baby.”

Lisa explained that although there was no formal arrangement, she felt like Tom had certain expectations of her that made her “feel owned.” After ending things, Lisa said she realized she wanted to be with a man who would allow her to feel more like an equal partner. She said the experience also reinforced the importance of having her own money so that she would never be entirely dependent on a man.

Now a decade removed from the experience and happily married, Lisa opened up about her tenure as a sugar baby on the premiere episode of her new CNN show, This is Life with Lisa Ling.