‘The View’ Book Gives New Insight on Rosie O’Donnell’s ‘Crush’ on Elisabeth Hasselbeck

Revelations from the upcoming book on the history of The View continue to trickle out. We’ve learned a lot about Rosie O’Donnell‘s memorable time on the show and her background since details started to drop. The latest deals with the host’s famous showdown with Elisabeth Hasselbeck and the “complicated emotions” that didn’t reveal themselves on TV.

The pair had an infamous argument on the air in May 2007, going back and forth with Hasselbeck over the Iraq War. According to Variety, Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of The View details how the fight led to O’Donnell’s departure from the show.

But the surprising part comes when O’Donnell reveals that she actually wasn’t at total odds with Hasselbeck and actually tried to help out her fellow host.

“I loved her,” O’Donnell says in the upcoming book. “Here’s what I said. ‘I’m the senior. She’s the freshman. I’ve got a really good player on the freshman team, but I have to teach her how to loosen up…’”

Joy Behar then adds another wrinkle to the mix, speculating that O’Donnell had a crush on her co-host, with the comedian confirming it soon after.

“I think there were underlying lesbian undertones on both parts,” O’Donnell reveals in the book. “I think this is something that will hurt her if you write it. She was the MVP of a Division 1 softball team for two years that won the finals. There are not many, in my life, girls with such athletic talent on sports teams that are traditionally male that aren’t at least a little bit gay.”

She continues discussing her feelings towards Hasselbeck, noting that she never intended to act on her attraction.

“There was a little bit of a crush,” O’Donnell admits. “Bt not that I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to support, raise, elevated her, like she was the freshman star shortstop and I was the captain of the team. I was going to Scottie Pippen her. If I was Jordan, I was going to give her and the ball and let her shoot. But it was in no way sexualized.”

The comedian then reveals that the fight was “more than politics” and the final straw for her came when her co-host would defend her against conservative critics.

“It felt like a lover breaking up,” O’Donnell adds about that moment on the show. “The fight that we had, to me as a gay woman, it felt like this: ‘You don’t love me as much as I love you.’ ‘I’ve taken care of you.’ ‘You have not.’ ‘How could you do that to me?’ ‘I didn’t do anything to you.’”

Aside from O’Donnell’s departure of the show, the book adds that Hasselbeck’s “likeability numbers” dropped and never recovered, likely leading to her firing in 2013 to make the show “less political.”

That aspect of the story seems to have backfired given the show’s recent inclusion in numerous political fights, including Kid Rock’s criticism of Joy Behar and Meghan McCain’s ongoing feud with the president.

Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of The View will be in stores April 2.