OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Several of “The View” co-hosts who have left the show over the years have not been complimentary of it after departing, and now former co-host Rosie O’Donnell joins the ranks.
According to Fox News, the individual appeared on Brooke Shields’ podcast, “Now What? With Brooke Shields,” during which she criticized some of her former colleagues and declared that she would never return to the show.
“No, I don’t have any regrets in terms of career and show business like that, I feel like each thing I learned something,” the actress and comedian said. “I know this — 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. I don’t know, it was not something that I would ever do again.”
“Barbara (Walters) and I got along after, we went out to dinner, we knew each other way before I did that show before she asked me to do it, and we remained friendly toward the end. I forgave her because she was older and did the best that she could with what she had to work with, but it’s nothing I’d want to do again, I can say that,” she continued.
At one point, O’Donnell talked about her then-co-host Whoopi Goldberg, who she said did not want to discuss the rape allegations against actor and comedian Bill Cosby before he was arrested and convicted, though she wanted to.
“I had produced my own show. I was the solo boss, and here I was not having any power to make decisions. There would be the Rory Kennedy documentary about Abu Ghraib was out about the torture that we did as a country, how we sanctioned it. And [“The View” co-creator and former executive producer] Bill Geddie wanted to do the new fall lipstick colors. And I’m like, ‘We’re not going to talk?’ And then, you know, Bill Cosby was a big topic, and I wanted to discuss Bill Cosby, and Whoopi did not,” said O’Donnell.
🔔 | Rosie O'Donnell says interacting with Whoopi Goldberg is 'worst experience she's ever had' https://t.co/Aha4Usz4Jt
— LADbible News (@LADbibleUKNews) April 20, 2023
Additionally, she revealed that following an argument with her conservative co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, she felt like she did not want to return to the show.
“One day on the show, she kind of threw me under the bus, and I was like, ‘Are you f—ing 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, and Whoopi was on it, and we clashed in ways that I was shocked by,” she continued.
“Whoopi Goldberg was as mean as anyone has ever been on television to me, personally — while I was sitting there,” O’Donnell wrote in a book about the show. “The worst experience I’ve ever had on live television was interacting with her.”
Earlier this month, the liberal co-hosts blasted first lady Jill Biden for having a “racial blind spot” after she decided to invite the all-white Iowa women’s basketball team to the White House along with the mostly black victorious LSU squad.
“I know we’ll have the champions come to the White House, we always do. So, we hope LSU will come,” the first lady said. “But, you know, I’m going to tell Joe I think Iowa should come, too, because they played such a good game.”
Co-host Sunny Hostin accused Jill Biden of having “racial blind spots.”
“I would think that it’s ignorance. It could be somewhat considered unconscious bias. I mean, everyone doesn’t get a trophy,” Hostin said.
“I don’t know that she knew it or not but it was clearly a blind spot. She’s got a black vice president to lean on, she spent eight years with the Obamas. I think at this point, there still could be some racial blind spots and unconscious bias,” Hostin continued. “I think this player is saying what a lot of people are thinking, had it been the black team that lost, perhaps the first lady would not have said that.”
