Former View co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck appeared on FOX & Friends on Tuesday and said that she is disturbed by remarks made by her former co-host Rosie O'Donnell.
O'Donnell made the remarks in Ramin Setoodeh's book Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of The View, asreported in Variety.
Said O'Donnell of her relationship with Hasselbeck on the show: “I loved her. Here's what I said, ‘I'm the senior. She's the freshman. I've got a really good player on the freshman team, but I have to teach her how to loosen up.'”
O'Donnell also agreed with an assertion by co-host Joy Behar that she had a crush on Hasselbeck. Said O'Donnell: “I think there were underlying lesbian undertones on both parts. 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. There was a little bit of a crush. 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 said that “It felt like a lover breaking up” when Hasselbeck wouldn't defend her from Republican critics. “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.'”
Hasselbeck responded on FOX & Friends when the hosts asked her about the remarks: “I'd like to be able to say that I didn't, but I read that. I'll be very honest. I read it and I immediately started praying, because I'm like, how am I going to 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.”
“If you took her words and replaced Rosie with Ronald, there would be an objectification of women in the workplace,” added Hasselbeck. “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.”
Hasselbeck continued: “I think her casting a stereotype on female athletes in what she said — that all female athletes are a little bit gay… 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 can handle that with the grace of God because I need grace and I need forgiveness. So Rosie, I think it was disturbing to read those things and it was offensive to me, but I forgive her. I totally forgive you, Rosie. I really hope that we can be at peace and that we can have, both hold our beliefs in one hand and hold each other's hand in the other and still have a relationship that's at peace.”
“But, more than that, just like I would pray for my friends, I hope that she has the peace of God,” added Hasselbeck. “Because Rosie O'Donnell is still seen and known and loved by God, and I hope that she feels that and I hope that she can find, ultimately, the peace. Even more than I want to be at peace with her, I hope she finds that peace because God wants that for her too.”
Watch via The Daily Beast:
