Rosie O’Donnell just spilled a whole pot of tea about her time on ‘The View’ and… damn

Elisabeth Hasselbeck was on there and Bill Geddie was the producer of an all-woman talk show and 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, 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’d release daily.

She had the talking points. I was trying to get her to feel more than to fact, I’m like, “But what do you feel about this?” I tried. Here’s what I did. When I took the job, I said to myself, I’m going to love her no matter what. I took her to her first Broadway show, I took her kids to see the Nickelodeon shows with me and my kids, I had her to my house.

One day on the show she kind of threw me under the bus and I was like, “Are you f*cking 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.

…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 the rape allegations against him] and Whoopi did not.

…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. It was not something I’d ever do again.

Rosie O’Donnell speaking to Brooke Shields on the Now What? With Brooke Shields podcast about her tortured tenure on The View.