Rosie O’Donnell has spent years sharing her bold opinions on national TV. Some have gone over well, and some have gotten her into a bit of trouble. One of her most infamous moments occurred with her former co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck during an explosive episode of “The View.” The conversation, which ended up playing out on a split-screen, centered on the Iraq War and featured both women accusing the other of misrepresenting their views and friendship. In a 2026 viral moment, O’Donnell said she often looks back on the conversation with Hasselbeck to remember exactly how she was feeling in that moment.
During her one-woman show, “Common Knowledge,” in New York City, O’Donnell didn’t hesitate when asked to name her favorite and least favorite co-host. She quickly singled out Hasselbeck as her least favorite, revisiting their infamous on-air clash, one of the most memorable feuds in daytime talk show history.
“Listen, it’s known that me and Elisabeth Hasselbeck did not have a great ending to our friendship, so I would say that was the most problematic, perhaps. But we did get along right up until the end, and then it blew up on national TV. Sometimes I watch that one,” she confessed.
When it comes to an on-air moment that O’Donnell has fond memories of, it has to be her 1997 chat with her idol, Barbara Streisand. “But if the Elisabeth Hasselbeck fight is on, I’m like, ‘Let me try to remember what this felt like.’ You know?” she added.
Rosie O’Donnell Believed She Was Set Up By Producers During Feud With Hasselbeck
During an appearance on the “Ricki-Lee, Tim and Joel” podcast, O’Donnell spoke about her feud with Hasselbeck and suggested people behind the scenes instigated the moment for ratings.
“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,” she said. “So, the whole thing, I think, was a setup.”
While going back and forth about the Iraq War, O’Donnell and Hasselbeck berated each other with deeply personal jabs that quickly eclipsed the political debate.
“You are an adult and I am certainly not going to be the person for you to explain your thoughts; they’re your thoughts,” Hasselbeck yelled.
“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. When they had the split screen,” O’Donnell said on the podcast.
O’Donnell also said during the interview that her interaction with Hasselbeck hurt her more than people realized because she considered her a true friend.
“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,” O’Donnell said.
Hasselbeck Fired Back At Rosie O’Donnell: ‘Stop The Madness, Stop The Lying’
Hasselbeck responded to O’Donnell’s claims that their headline-making feud was a setup, accusing her of lying for attention, per Entertainment Weekly.
“Stop lying, stop, stop, and in the meantime and even maybe if you don’t stop, I still forgive you and it can just be so much more free, Rosie, if you can just stop,” she said on her Instagram. “Stop the madness, stop the lying, and just be free. I just pray God’s fire and glory around you so you can be protected from whatever is holding you back.”
O’Donnell Shares When She Knew It Was Time To Quit Her Eponymous Talk Show
Before “The View,” O’Donnell hosted her own talk show, “The Rosie O’Donnell Show,” in the late ’90s until the early 2000s. While the show was a major success, O’Donnell said she wasn’t interested in continuing any further after learning her bank account had amassed a whopping figure.
“When I heard that [I had $100 million], I thought, ‘OK, now I’m done,’” she said, according to a previous report from The Blast. “And everyone was like, ‘Why are you leaving?’”
O’Donnell Said She Can’t Relate To ‘Billionaires’
Besides spending more time with her family and friends, O’Donnell said that she had officially made enough to take care of those closest to her, donate to charities, and do philanthropic work. For O’Donnell, being filthy rich was never the goal, so it made leaving her talk-show in her rearview that much easier.
“I don’t get the billionaires,” she said. “I don’t get how people only measure their life in money, not what they can do for other people.”
