Rosie O’Donnell claims her blowout fight with Elisabeth Hasselbeck on ‘The View’ in 2007 was a ‘setup’.
The comedian looks back on the shocking TV moment in a new interview on the “Ricki-Lee, Tim Joel” radio show, and recalls that producer Bill Geddie wasn’t caught off guard on live TV.
“Our producer is not a fly-on-the-wall guy. He wasn’t a ‘Let’s go split screen’ kind of Mr. That was set up,” O’Donnell claimed. “So I think the whole thing was a setup.”
ABC representatives and The View declined to comment. Hasselbeck did not respond to our request.
The moment O’Donnell references occurred on May 23, 2007, when the co-hosts of “The View” were in the middle of a heated discussion about America’s involvement in the Iraq war.
O’Donnell, now 63, called out Hasselbeck, now 48, during a segment for not defending her when the media accused the “Rosie O’Donnell Show” alum, whom the media called a “terrorist.”
“You’re an adult and I’m certainly not going to be the one for you to explain your thoughts. They’re your thoughts!” Hasselbeck yelled as the screen split to show them side by side.
O’Donnell added on a recent radio show that the dispute struck a nerve because she believed she and Hasselbeck had a genuine off-camera friendship at the time.
“I can’t believe this woman did it for her, because when I took that job, I made one commitment to myself: I wasn’t going to be her enemy, I was going to meet her as her,” the “Rosie Show” alum explained.
“She came to my house, she was in my pool, she took her little kids, I took her kids to ‘Sesame Street Live,’ I took her to her first Broadway opening,” adding that she “bent over backwards for this woman.”
O’Donnell and Hasselbeck’s feud continued after they left “The View” in 2013 and 2015, respectively.
O’Donnell revealed to journalist Ramin Setoodeh. He shared it in his book, Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of ‘The View.’
Hasselbeck called the confession “offensive and disturbing,” adding, “I think she’s casting a stereotype on female athletes with what she said… And all female athletes are a little bit gay… It’s an unfair stereotype, it’s selfish in a way, and I think it’s false.”
O’Donnell then responded to the conservative commentator via X (formerly Twitter), saying, “I do remember b4 was wrong.
