Rosie O'Donnell V Elisabeth Hasselbeck! Leftie Comic Trashes Former 'The View' Co-host, Claims Fiery On-Air Battle Was a 'Setup' — 'I Bent Over Backwards for This Woman'
Rosie O'Donnell and Elisabeth Hasselbeck's televised feud erupted on May 23, 2007.
Oct. 7 2025, Published 5:00 p.m. ET
Rosie O'Donnell is still seething over her on-air war of words with her former The View co-panelist Elisabeth Hasselbeck nearly two decades after their vicious feud went down, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
O'Donnell, 63, raged about how she "bent over backwards" to get along with the former Survivor contestant on the ABC daytime show, only to have a furious battle over their political views about the Iraq War in May 2007 that marked one of the most infamous and fiery moments in The View's 29-season history.
'After All I Did For Her'
O'Donnell claimed she made plenty of attempted to befriend Hasselbeck.
The comedian made her remarks trashing Hasselbeck, 48, during a Sunday, October 5, appearance on the Ricki-Lee, Tim & Joel podcast, while on her first visit to Australia.
"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," liberal O'Donnell said about making sure to put aside any political differences with conservative Hasselbeck.
The Sleepless in Seattle star joined the show as moderator in June 2006, while Hasselbeck came aboard in November 2003.
"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," O'Donnell explained about how she tried to get along with the Rhode Island native.
'I Bent Over Backwards'
O'Donnell's liberal views often clashed with conservative Hasselbeck.
"I bent over backwards for this woman, and here she was coming at me on national TV about whether or not I was patriotic," the A League of Their Own star groused about their famed on-air beef, which was so dramatic it was turned into a split-screen of the ladies yelling at each other.
O'Donnell fumed about how she felt only Hasselbeck went after her for her liberal viewpoints on The View, which at the time included Barbara Walters, Joy Behar, and Sherri Shepherd sharing the table.
"It felt to me like I was on a basketball team of five women, and one of them kept tripping me on the way to the hoop," the New York native griped.
'A Setup'
O'Donnell and Hasselbeck's uninterrupted war of words quickly went viral.
A turning point for O'Donnell came "when they had the split screen," about how her on-air fight with Hasselbeck singled out the two women to make for dramatic TV.
The Fosters alum claimed she had no idea that the pair would be captured that way on camera, saying, "Of course not, no!" about how they were portrayed.
O'Donnell said she only realized what was happening when she looked and saw herself in a split screen with Hasselbeck, claiming that then-executive producer Bill Gedde set up her epic battle with her cohost, where the two ended up screaming over each other.
"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. So, the whole thing, I think, was a setup," O'Donnell sneered.
At one point during the heated exchange, a nervous Behar asked, "What are we, PBS? Why aren't we going to the commercial?" about how the televised fight was allowed to continue for so long.
Fallout
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O'Donnell left 'The View' shortly after her fight with Hasselbeck, but returned in 2014 after the conservative panelist took a job at Fox.
O'Donnell didn't appear on the next day's show after the blowout battle with Hasselbeck. Walters claimed "everything was all right" between the women and that O'Donnell had a planned day off to start the Memorial Day weekend early. O'Donnell returned the following week to complete her contract and then quickly departed The View.
Hasselbeck left the program in 2013 to join Fox & Friends.
O'Donnell returned to The View the following year for the show's 18th season, but her 2014 stint was a short one. She left after only a few months due to health issues and stress caused by frequent clashes with moderator Whoopi Goldberg.
