Rosie O’Donnell had a lot to say about her former View cohosts Whoopi Goldberg and Elisabeth Hasselbeck on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen on Monday, June 24. During her appearance, she opened up about the drama that surfaced from past comments she has made about her fellow costars.
While O’Donnell, 57, spoke about her current standing with Roseanne Barr and speculation about her joining The Talk, the juiciest information surfaced as she reflected on earlier remarks she made about Goldberg, 63, and Hasselbeck, 42, in Ramin Setoodeh’s April tell-all book Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of The View.
In Setoodeh’s book, the Rosie Show alum described the Oscar winner as “mean” and “worse than Fox News.” She also regarded her time working with Goldberg as “the worst experience I’ve ever had on live television.” When discussing Hasselbeck, she suggested there were “underlying lesbian undertones” between them — which the Point of View author later denied.
When a caller asked O’Donnell if she has spoken with Goldberg since the tell-all book’s release, she claimed the pair were “very cordial” when they “bumped into each other physically” at Megan Mullally’s live show. She also said they recently worked together on an upcoming project for ABC.
“I’m always going to respect her. I’m always going to look up to her,” O’Donnell continued to tell host Andy Cohen. “She was somebody who was inspirational in my career. You like to keep those people in a place of reverence if you can, and that’s what I’m hoping to do.”
Cohen then asked the Sleepless in Seattle star whether she believed Hasselback took comments she made about the Deliciously G-Free author in Setoodeh’s book “out of context.” O’Donnell replied by singing: “Yes!”
“Come on, she knows, too,” O’Donnell told Cohen. “That’s the thing is that she knows. She knows exactly what I’m talking about.”
Hasselbeck previously slammed O’Donnell’s remarks about their alleged “lesbian undertones” during a March appearance on Fox & Friends. “I think it was disturbing to read those things and it was offensive to me, but I forgive her,” Hasselbeck said at the time. “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.”
Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen airs Sundays through Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET.
