Elisabeth Hasselbeck Says Rosie O'Donnell's Comments About Her Were 'Disturbing,' 'Offensive' and Stereotypical

The former ‘View’ cohost also claims she tried to reach out to Rosie after reading what she said about her.

It’s 2007 all over again, as Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Rosie O’Donnell are reviving their feud in a very public way.

One day after O’Donnell said she had a "crush" on her former cohost — and claimed Elisabeth was "a little bit gay" — in excerpts from a new "View" tell-all, Hasselbeck hit back appearing on "Fox & Friends" on Tuesday morning.

Promoting her own book, "Point of View," Elisabeth said she had heard Rosie’s comments about her, before sharing her reaction on the morning news show.

"I’d like to be able to say that I didn’t, but I read that," she said. "I’ll be very honest. I read it and I immediately started praying. Because I’m like, how I’m gonna handle this in my old self would be another split screen moment, but now I really feel like by God’s grace I just started praying, and I pray now the Holy Spirit gives me the words to articulate this, but I think it can be addressed with both truth and grace."

"I feel like the truth is, what she said, if you took her words and you replaced Rosie for Ronald, there would be an objectification of women in the workplace," Hasselbeck continued. "So that is disturbing and it’s wrong. And whether you’re a man or whether you’re a woman, and you’re objectifying women in the workplace, it’s wrong."

In the excerpt from "Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of The View," O’Donnell claimed there were "underlying lesbian undertones on both parts." She then made wild speculations about her cohost, saying, "I think this is something that will hurt her if you write it. She was the MVP of a Division 1 softball team for two years that won the finals. There are not many, in my life, girls with such athletic talent on sports teams that are traditionally male that aren’t at least a little bit gay."

"Secondly, I think her casting a stereotype on female athletes and what she said… that all female athletes are a little bit gay. Listen, I tried to call her yesterday and her number is old, the one on my phone," Elisabeth said in response. "So I would say this directly to her, and I would say, that’s an unfair stereotype and it seems selfish in a way and I think that it’s untrue."

"I think it was disturbing to read those things and I think it was offensive to me, but I forgive her," said Hasselbeck. "I totally forgive you Rosie and I hope we can be at peace and that we can uphold our beliefs in one hand and hold each other’s hands in the other and still have a relationship that’s at peace."

"I hope that she has the peace of God," she continued. "Rosie O’Donnell is still seen and loved by God and I hope that she feels that, that she can find the peace. I hope she finds that peace, because God wants that for her too."

Elisabeth was also asked about it on "The View," where she said, "You don’t get a pass because you’re a lesbian objectifying a woman in the workplace." She added, "the feeling was not mutual."

O’Donnell joined the show from 2006-2007, while Hasselbeck was a cohost from 2003-2013. Rosie later returned in 2014, after Elisabeth’s exit.

"There was a little bit of a crush," O’Donnell admitted in "Ladies Who Punch." "But not that I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to support, raise, elevate her, like she was the freshman star shortstop and I was the captain of the team. I was going to Scottie Pippen her. If I was Jordan, I was going to give her and the ball and let her shoot. But it was in no way sexualized."

O’Donnell also addressed their televised fight that will go down in daytime TV history, just two days before ABC confirmed Rosie’s early exit from the show. During the feud, Rosie accused her cohost of not defending her from right wing criticism.

"It felt like a lover breaking up," said O’Donnell. "The fight that we had, to me as a gay woman, it felt like this: ‘You don’t love me as much as I love you.’ ‘I’ve taken care of you.’ ‘You have not.’ ‘How could you do that to me?’ ‘I didn’t do anything to you.’"

"Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of The View" will be released April 2, 2019. Hasselbeck’s "Point of View," is out now.


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