‘The View’: Rosie O’Donnell Details Alleged Elisabeth Hasselbeck Incident That Led to Her Quitting

The View has had many infamous moments throughout its 25+ year run. The daytime talk show is meant to spark conversation on world issues including politics, social issues, and popular culture. Mixed with a group of women from varying ethnicities and belief systems, there’s bound to be a few verbal spats, some of which have ended friendships between co-hosts. That turned out to be the case for  Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Rosie O’Donnell. In fact, the comedian once hinted that she quit the show after a heated situation involving the conservative. 

“She had the talking points and I was trying to get her to feel more than to fact,” O’Donnell said, as reported by Deadline. “When I took the job I said to myself, ‘I’m gonna love her no matter what.’ I took her to her first Broadway show, I took her kids to see the Nickelodeon shows with me and my kids. I had her at my house with her husband — they swam in my pool. I thought we were friends in a civil kind of way and then one day on the show, she kind of threw me under the bus and I was like, ‘Are you f***ing kidding me?’ I finished the show, got my coat, walked out and said, ‘I am not going back.’”

O’Donnell co-hosted the show for one season 2006-2007 and was let out of her contract early. The incident with Hasselbeck seemingly led to her asking to leave. She later returned for a short stint from September 2014 to February 2015. And she hasn’t looked back since. It’s a job she says she’d never do again.

“[It was] not the best use of my talent to get in a show where I have to argue and defend basic principles of humanity and kindnes,” she added. “It was not something I would ever do again,” she added.