Former ‘View’ Host Rosie O’Donnell Slams the Talk Show: “Not Something I’d Ever Do Again”

Rosie O’Donnell does not seem to have many fond memories of her time co-hosting The View.

The talk show has become known for its hosts’ near-daily spats about political and cultural topics. But O’Donnell’s short tenure on the show from 2006 to 2007 resulted in one of television’s biggest daytime showdowns — one that O’Donnell does not seem to want to return to.

“It’s not the best use of my talent to get in a show where I have to argue and defend basic principles of humanity and kindness,” she told Brooke Shields on a recent episode of her podcast, Now What? With Brooke Shields.

“It was not something that I would ever do again,” O’Donnell said.

She had already earned a reputation for her outspoken political commentary when she hosted her own talk show The Rosie O’Donnell Show. But on The View, she regularly clashed with conservative co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

She told Shields she went into the show with a focus on “teamwork” and the intention to “love” Hasselbeck “no matter what.” The co-hosts spent time together outside of the show, but on stage, her mission proved to be difficult.

In 2007, O’Donnell got into a heated debate with Hasselbeck about the Iraq War, but it quickly became personal.

So much so, O’Donnell even said before they got into it during the segment, “Let me tell you why I don’t wanna do it. Because here’s how it gets spun in the media: Rosie — big, fat, lesbian, loud Rosie — attacks innocent, pure, Christian Elisabeth. And I’m not doing it.”

But the comedian told Shields she thought they were friends, or at least on civil terms.

“One day on the show, she kind of threw me under the bus and I was like, ‘Are you f–king kidding me?’ I finished the show, got my coat, walked out, and said, ‘I’m not going back’ — and I didn’t until a few years later, when they asked me to come back,” she told Shields.

The two clashed regularly on the show for their differing political opinions. But O’Donnell explained, Hasselbeck had longtime View producer Bill Geddie in her corner.

“The producer of an all-women’s talk show with supposedly a woman’s voice was a man — an old, cis, white man, Republican who was against everything that I believed in and stood for,” she recalled. “And he loved Elisabeth Hasselbeck, and would go into her little dressing room and give her notes and talking points of the Republican press that they would release daily. She had the talking points.”

She explained, “I was trying to get her to feel more than to fact.”

Despite it all, O’Donnell says she does not regret appearing on the show.

“I feel like [with] each thing I learned something,” she said.

The View airs weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.