Rosie O’Donnell has reflected on her infamous 2007 on-air clash with Elisabeth Hasselbeck, describing their fractured friendship as the most difficult relationship from her time on The View, while naming Joy Behar as her favourite co-host and closest remaining friend from the show.
Rosie O’Donnell has revisited her explosive falling-out with former The View co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, describing it as the most “problematic” relationship from her time on the daytime talk show. Speaking to People, the 64-year-old comedian, who appeared on the programme across two separate stints, from September 2006 to May 2007, and again from September 2014 to February 2015, admitted the fallout still resonates with her nearly two decades later. “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,” O’Donnell said. “But we did get along right up until the end, and then it blew up on national TV. Sometimes I watch that one.”
A friendship undone on live television
O’Donnell revealed she still occasionally rewatches footage of the argument, contrasting it with her reluctance to watch other emotional moments from her career, such as an appearance by her idol Barbra Streisand on the show in 1997, which she says makes her cry. “But if the Elisabeth Hasselbeck fight is on, I’m like, ‘Let me try to remember what this felt like.’ You know?” she said.
The pair’s infamous confrontation unfolded on the 23 May 2007 episode of The View, when a discussion about the Iraq war escalated into a ten-minute on-air argument that quickly turned personal. The clash followed an earlier comment O’Donnell had made on the show on 17 May 2007, when she said: “655,000 Iraqi civilians dead. Who are the terrorists? If you were in Iraq and another country, the United States, the richest in the world, invaded your country and killed 655,000 of your citizens, what would you call us?”
The remark drew sharp criticism from right-wing and centrist commentators over her use of the word “terrorists,” though O’Donnell maintained her words had been misrepresented. Feeling that Hasselbeck had failed to publicly defend her in the aftermath, O’Donnell confronted her co-host directly on the 23 May episode, at one point calling her “cowardly” and asking in front of the panel: “Do you believe I think our troops are terrorists?”
Hasselbeck responded that she didn’t believe O’Donnell thought the military was made up of terrorists, but pushed back, telling her: “Defend your own insinuations.” As O’Donnell continued to press the point, invoking their friendship while criticising Hasselbeck for not standing up for her, Hasselbeck shot back: “You are an adult and I am certainly not going to be the person for you to explain your thoughts; they’re your thoughts!” Fellow co-hosts Joy Behar and Sherri Shepherd attempted to de-escalate the argument at the time, without success. O’Donnell left the show two days later.
Hasselbeck’s reflections on the fallout
Hasselbeck revisited the moment earlier this year during an appearance on The View’s Behind the Table podcast, describing it as one of the more difficult days of her career. “It’s wild, that split-screen moment. It determined something. It determined who was coming back,” she said. “It was a stressful day. It’s not a day that I love. It’s a significant day because I can look back at it now with maturity and think my position would be the same.”
While standing by her position during the argument, Hasselbeck acknowledged she might have handled her delivery differently. “[I would’ve] maybe tried to be a little bit more physically calm, but I don’t know. I was so passionate about the issue,” she said. “For me, I think that I’m proud to have spoken on behalf of the military, and I’m proud that this is a program that allowed even that passion to be shared. It’s ugly. It’s not a fun thing to look at.”
She admitted the confrontation took a personal toll at the time, permanently altering her relationship with O’Donnell. “I probably cried through the rest of the day. I feel like it created this awful human rift, and I’m not sure it’s ever worth it for that. I do think we’re created for unity,” she said. “I don’t think we’re created to have discord, dissension. I think we’re meant to have unity and connection. Even if I can’t see like you see, I like to see where you see it from. I love to get someone’s point of view on something and have love anyway, in that.” Hasselbeck has previously said she holds no personal resentment toward O’Donnell, framing their clash as the product of fundamentally different political beliefs that eventually surfaced on air.
Despite the personal cost, Hasselbeck has credited the moment with boosting her public profile and helping shape her career path. “It’s why I got hired at Fox, actually. Roger Ailes was like, ‘I saw that, you’re hired,'” she claimed. She went on to become a co-host of Fox & Friends.
A moment that still resonates
The 23 May 2007 confrontation remains one of the most talked-about live arguments in daytime television history, with clips of the exchange continuing to attract millions of views online nearly two decades on. Following O’Donnell’s departure that year, Whoopi Goldberg joined The View later in 2007 as a permanent co-host and moderator, marking a new chapter for the programme. O’Donnell briefly returned to the show in 2014 but left again after less than six months, citing personal and family reasons rather than any conflict with her fellow panellists.
Looking back without regret
Despite the very public fallout, O’Donnell has said she does not regret her time on The View, describing it as one of the most significant chapters of her television career. In her recent interview, she named Joy Behar as her favourite co-host from the show, saying the pair remain close friends who continue to speak regularly.
