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Elisabeth Hasselbeck Slams Rosie O’Donnell’s ‘Disturbing’ and ‘Offensive’ Crush Confession

Elisabeth Hasselbeck did not mince words while sharing her reaction to her former The View cohost Rosie O’Donnell admitting that she once had a crush on her.

“I’d like to be able to say that I didn’t, but I read that,” Hasselbeck, 41, said on Fox & Friends on Tuesday, March 26. “I’ll be very honest: I read it and I immediately started praying. … And I pray now the Holy Spirit gives me the words to articulate this, but I think it can be addressed with both truth and grace.”

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Elisabeth Hasselbeck Slams Rosie O’Donnell’s ‘Disturbing’ and ‘Offensive’ Crush Confession
Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Rosie O’Donnell John Lamparski/WireImage; Manny Carabel/Getty Images

She continued, “If you took her words and you replaced ‘Rosie’ for ‘Ronald,’ there would be an objectification of women in the workplace, so that is disturbing and it’s wrong. And whether you’re a man or whether you’re a woman and you’re objectifying women in the workplace, it’s wrong.”

O’Donnell, 57, said in an excerpt of the new book Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of The View that she had “a little bit of a crush” on the former Fox News host, claiming “there were underlying lesbian undertones on both parts.” The comedian also caught heat for bringing up Hasselbeck’s past playing softball in college, saying, “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.”

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In response, Hasselbeck said on Tuesday, “I think her casting a stereotype on female athletes and what she said — that all female athletes are ‘a little bit gay’ — I would say this directly to her, and I would say, ‘That’s an unfair stereotype, and it seems selfish in a way and I think that it’s untrue.’”

The Survivor alum revealed that she tried to contact O’Donnell personally, but had an old phone number.

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“Rosie, I think it was disturbing to read those things and it was offensive to me, but I forgive her,” Hasselbeck concluded. “I totally forgive you, Rosie. … I really hope that we can be at peace and that we can both hold our beliefs in one hand and hold each other’s hand in the other and still have a relationship that’s at peace. … Even more than I want to be at peace with her, I hope she finds that peace because God wants that for her too.” (She echoed similar sentiments on The View later on Tuesday.)

The cohosts were often at odds during season 10 of the ABC talk show in the mid-2000s. They infamously argued about the Iraq War on air in May 2007, days before O’Donnell’s abrupt exit from the Emmy-winning series. For her part, Hasselbeck left in 2013.

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