Comedian Rosie O’Donnell says she will return to “The View” for the show’s 30th-anniversary special “just as a guest.”
“I will go on the 30th anniversary next year, and be on in whatever way they want me, just as a guest,” O’Donnell said on the Tangle with Kyle Ridley Podcast on Monday. “You know, they’re bringing back all the hosts, I think, for the 30th season. And you know, that’s exciting.”
O’Donnell previously co-hosted “The View” during two separate stints, from September 2006 to May 2007 for Season 10, and from September 2014 to February 2015 for Season 18. While emphasizing she would only be returning as a guest, O’Donnell reflected on her time on the show, noting how much it has changed since then.
“I’m proud of that show. What it’s become, and how it really speaks to the people and to politics, and that was not the case when I first joined,” she said. “It was a show at the time that was run by a man, a show created by a woman, for women, about women, and a man was deciding what we should talk about, and that didn’t sit right with me.”
@kyleridleytangle Rosie O’Donnell talks “The View” past, 30th anniversary, respect for Whoopi Goldberg. Check out @Rosie ODonnell’s new show, “Common Knowledge,” and hear our full conversation on “The Tangle with Kyle Ridley” podcast
@The Rosie Clips #rosieodonell #theview #whoopigoldberg #millennial #commonknowlesge
After her first run as co-host, O’Donnell left amid an infamous on-air dispute with former co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Her second stint ended similarly, with a “tense” dynamic between her and co-host Whoopi Goldberg preceding her 2015 departure, according to reports.
“When I was there last, I had sort of a tense time with Whoopi, somebody I admire, I wanted to be on her team, I have respect for her and I expected that we would be like you know, Scotty Pippen and Michael Jordan passing the ball back and forth and then shooting, you know leading the team to victory but that’s not exactly what happened,” O’Donnell said. “I think maybe she felt encroached upon in some way and I was never trying to encroach,” she said.
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O’Donnell said she had hoped the two would become friends, but things didn’t pan out that way.
“Well, I wanted to be best friends too, to tell you the truth,” she said. “I went to her house before I went in, we had a lovely lunch and talked about everything. I was like ‘I’m here for you,’ you know, I thought I was going in safe and sound.”
She also noted that since her departure, she and Goldberg have worked through their tensions, praising her as a fellow woman who supports women.