Rosie O'Donnell Lets It Spill About Her Time on 'The View': One Co-Host 'Was as Mean as Anyone'
Rosie O’Donell appeared on Brooke Shields’ podcast on Tuesday, where she dished on her time as a host of ABC’s long-running daytime talk show “The View.”
O’Donnell, who co-hosted the show for two stints beginning in 2006, made it clear there is no love lost between her and Whoopi Goldberg.
While the two might have shared similar political views, O’Donnell told Shields on her “Now What?” podcast Goldberg was awful to work with.
“Whoopi Goldberg was as mean as anyone has ever been on television to me, personally — while I was sitting there,” she said.
O’Donnell, who had previously hosted her own show, added, “The worst experience I’ve ever had on live television was interacting with her.”
She also attacked former co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who she said led her to quit the show the first time in 2007.
“One day on the show she kind of threw me under the bus and I was like, ‘Are you f***ing kidding me?’” O’Donnell sa
“I finished the show, got my coat, walked out, and said I’m not going back, and I didn’t until a few years later when they asked me to come back and Whoopi was on it and we clashed in ways that I was shocked by,” she added.
The only former co-host O’Donnell recalled fondly was the late Barbara Walters, who died last year at age 93 and had launched the show in 1997.
“Barbara and I got along after, we went out to dinner, we knew each other way before I did that show – before she asked me to do it – and we remained friendly toward the end,” she said.
“I forgave her, because she was older and did the best that she could with what she had to work with, but it’s nothing I’d want to do again, I can say that,” O’Donnell concluded.
O’Donnell told Shields she rejoined “The View” again in 2014 but left the following year.
After Shields asked her about a potential third go-around, O’Donnell shot her down.
“I know this, it’s not the best use of my talent to get in a show where I have to argue and defend basic principles of humanity and kindness,” she said.
She concluded, “It was not something that I would ever do again.”
Tuesday was not the first time O’Donnell has spoken about her time on the show.
In 2020, she told The Daily Beast of her old show, “I don’t watch it anymore because it upsets me, and because I think it’s been dumbed down a lot.”
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