Rosie O’Donnell has a surprising theory about a dramatic fight on The View that helped define her legacy with the daytime new show.
The 63-year-old comedian and talk show host claimed during an interview on the Ricki Lee and Tim Joel radio show that a vicious argument she had in 2007 with her co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, 48, had allegedly been a ‘setup’ orchestrated by producers of The View.
O’Donnell — who recently shared her plans to obtain foreign citizenship — and Hasselbeck, a conservative on The View panel who broke out as a star on Survivor in 2001, fought on television over the Iraq War.
According to O’Donnell, The View’s then-producer Bill Geddie — who died in 2023 at 68 — favored careful planning and wouldn’t have left the unusually orchestrated segment up to chance.
‘Our producer is not an on-the-fly kind of guy, he wasn’t mister, like, “Let’s go to the split-screen.” That was prepared,’ O’Donnell claimed in her interview. ‘So, the whole thing, I think, was a setup.’
The Daily Mail has contacted representatives for Hasselbeck, ABC News and O’Donnell for comment but hasn’t yet received a response.
Rosie O’Donnell claimed a 2007 argument with Elisabeth Hasselbeck on The View was ‘a setup’ instigated by producers in a new interview
O’Donnell and Hasselbeck, a conservative on The View panel who broke out as a star on Survivor in 2001, fought on television over the Iraq War and O’Donnell’s controversial comments about it
O’Donnell’s argument with Hasselbeck referenced an earlier statement from the comedian
‘655,000 Iraqi civilians dead. Who are the terrorists?’ O’Donnell had asked on an episode of The View from May 17, 2007. ‘If you were in Iraq and another country, the United States, the richest in the world, invaded your country and killed 655,000 of your citizens, what would you call us?’
The statement was instantly lambasted by right-wing and centrist pundits and commentators due to O’Donnell’s use of the term ‘terrorists,’ but she accused her critics of twisting her words.
Then, on the May 23 episode of The View, O’Donnell lashed out at her co-host Hasselbeck for failing to publicly defend her.
‘Do you believe I think our troops are terrorists?’ the actress asked Hasselbeck in front of the panel.
Hasselbeck indicated that she didn’t believe O’Donnell believed the military was comprised of terrorists, but she urged her fellow host to ‘Defend your own insinuations.’
As O’Donnell tried to highlight her friendship with Hasselbeck while attacking the conservative co-host for not sticking up for her, Hasselbeck shot back, ‘You are an adult and I am certainly not going to be the person for you to explain your thoughts; they’re your thoughts!’
Co-hosts Joy Behar and Sherri Shepherd tried to tone down the argument, to no avail.
‘655,000 Iraqi civilians dead. Who are the terrorists?’ O’Donnell had asked on an episode of The View from May 17, 2007, which launched a wave of conservative criticism
O’Donnell called out Hasselbeck for not defending her on The View, and the women got into a shouting match. O’Donnell said the use of sophisticated split-screen during the segment indicated that the show’s producer was in on the plans for an on-camera fight
‘Our producer is not an on-the-fly kind of guy, he wasn’t mister, like, “Let’s go to the split-screen.” That was prepared,’ O’Donnell claimed in her interview. ‘So, the whole thing, I think, was a setup’
In her new interview, O’Donnell admitted that she was hurt by Hasselbeck’s alleged behind-the-scenes behavior and by the on-camera argument, as she thought they had established a solid friendship by that point.
‘I can not believe that this woman, after all I did for her — because when I took that job, I made one commitment to myself, that I was not going to be her enemy, that I was going to meet her as a person,’ O’Donnell said.
‘She came to my house, she was in my pool, she brought her little kid, I took her kid to Sesame Street Live, I took her to her first Broadway opening,’ she continued, claimed that she ‘bent over backwards for this woman.’
O’Donnell ultimately had a much shorter tenure on The View than her co-host. She was initially on the show, as its moderator, from 2006 through 2007, and then she returned for a short stint from 2014 to 2015.
Hasselbeck remained on the series for a decade, from 2003 to 2013.
But ever after the two women were done with The View, they continued to feud in the public eye.
In an interview with Ramin Setoodeh for his 2019 history of The View, Ladies Who Punch, O’Donnell admitted that she once had ‘a little bit of a crush’ on Hasselbeck, though she claimed that it wasn’t in a ‘sexual way.’
She suggested that Hasselbeck’s history as the captain of a women’s softball team at Boston College gave her ‘underlying lesbian undertones.’
In her new interview, O’Donnell admitted that she was hurt by Hasselbeck’s alleged behind-the-scenes behavior and by the on-camera argument, as she thought they had established a solid friendship by that point; seen Monday in Sydney, Australia
O’Donnell later claimed to have had a non-sexual crush on Hasselbeck, which the conservative commentator called ‘offensive and disturbing’ in a subsequent appearance on Fox & Friends; seen on The View in 2019
‘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,’ O’Donnell continued.
During a subsequent appearance on Fox & Friends, Hasselbeck said O’Donnell’s comments were ‘offensive and disturbing.’
‘I think her casting a stereotype on female athletes in what she said … and that all female athletes are a little bit gay … That’s an unfair stereotype and it seems selfish in a way and I think that it’s untrue,’ she said.
On X (then Twitter), O’Donnell shot back: ‘surely u recall b4 it all went wrong – i never objectified u – i did find u fantastic – broadway shows – my pool -we were friends once ❤️ god love ya kid – i always did.’
