Elisabeth Hasselbeck talks THAT 'ugly' explosive 2007 argument with Rosie O'Donnell on The View

The most notorious moment in the history of The View was a blow out split-screen argument between hosts Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Rosie O'Donnell.

And now Hasselbeck, 48, is opening up about the explosive argument with O'Donnell, 63, on the morning chat news show that their friendship ultimately never recovered from.

Hasselbeck, a conservative on The View panel who broke out as a star on Survivor in 2001, and O'Donnell infamously fought on television over the Iraq War. 

Hasselbeck recently discussed the incident on The View's companion podcast Behind The Table as she said of the groundbreaking moment: 'It's wild, that split-screen moment. It determined something. It determined who was coming back.

'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.'

The former reality star did maintain that she would not have changed anything about the argument.

She said: '[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.

'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.'

Hasselbeck did admit that the heated back-and-forth did take a toll on her at the time and that it affected her friendship with O'Donnell from then on as she said it had been civil up until that point.

She explained: '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. 

'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.'

It did change her career path, however, as she admitted to the bombshell argument helping her land a job at Fox News later.

Hasselbeck said: 'It's why I got hired at Fox, actually. Roger Ailes was like, "I saw that, you're hired."'

This was not the first time the on-air fight has been brought up in recent months as back in October, Hasselbeck emotionally hit back at O'Donnell over comments that their notorious 2007 argument on the show had been a 'setup' by producers.

 The television personality took to her now expired Instagram Stories on October 9 to hit back at the comedian.

Earlier that week O'Donnell  claimed during an interview on the Ricki Lee and Tim Joel radio show that a vicious argument she had in 2007 with her co-host Hasselbeck had allegedly been a 'setup' orchestrated by producers of The View.

 According to O'Donnell, The View's then-producer Bill Geddie — who died in 2023 at 68 — favored careful planning and wouldn't have left the unusually orchestrated segment up to chance.

'Our producer is not an on-the-fly kind of guy, he wasn’t mister, like, "Let’s go to the split-screen." That was prepared,' O’Donnell claimed in her interview. 'So, the whole thing, I think, was a setup.'

Then days later Hasselbeck tearfully fired back on social media documented by Entertainment Weekly as she asked O'Donnell to 'stop the lying.'

Hasselbeck continued: 'And even maybe if you don't stop, I still forgive you.

'And it can just be so much more free, Rosie, if you can just stop. Stop the madness, stop the lying and just be free.'

The former reality star continued later by saying:  'I really hope that you can be released from whatever this is that's causing you to cause such harm.'

Daily Mail had reached out to representatives for O'Donnell for comment at the time and has yet to hear back. Representatives for The View refused to comment.

Meanwhile, O'Donnell's argument with Hasselbeck had referenced an earlier statement from the comedian.

'655,000 Iraqi civilians dead. Who are the terrorists?' O'Donnell had asked on an episode of The View from May 17, 2007. '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 statement was instantly lambasted by right-wing and centrist pundits and commentators due to O'Donnell's use of the term 'terrorists,' but she accused her critics of twisting her words.

 Then, on the May 23 episode of The View, O'Donnell lashed out at her co-host Hasselbeck for failing to publicly defend her.

'Do you believe I think our troops are terrorists?' the actress asked Hasselbeck in front of the panel.

Hasselbeck indicated that she didn't believe O'Donnell believed the military was comprised of terrorists, but she urged her fellow host to 'Defend your own insinuations.'

As O'Donnell tried to highlight her friendship with Hasselbeck while attacking the conservative co-host for not sticking 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!'

Co-hosts Joy Behar and Sherri Shepherd tried to tone down the argument, to no avail.

In her new interview, O'Donnell admitted that she was hurt by Hasselbeck's alleged behind-the-scenes behavior and by the on-camera argument, as she thought they had established a solid friendship by that point.

'I can not believe that this woman, after all I did for her — because when I took that job, I made one commitment to myself, that I was not going to be her enemy, that I was going to meet her as a person,' O'Donnell said.

'She came to my house, she was in my pool, she brought her little kid, I took her kid to Sesame Street Live, I took her to her first Broadway opening,' she continued, claimed that she 'bent over backwards for this woman.'

O'Donnell ultimately had a much shorter tenure on The View than her co-host. She was initially on the show, as its moderator, from 2006 through 2007, and then she returned for a short stint from 2014 to 2015.

Hasselbeck remained on the series for a decade, from 2003 to 2013.

But ever after the two women were done with The View, they continued to feud in the public eye.

In an interview with Ramin Setoodeh for his 2019 history of The View, Ladies Who Punch, O'Donnell admitted that she once had 'a little bit of a crush' on Hasselbeck, though she claimed that it wasn't in a 'sexual way.'

She suggested that Hasselbeck's history as the captain of a women's softball team at Boston College gave her 'underlying lesbian undertones.'

'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,' O'Donnell continued.

During a subsequent appearance on Fox & Friends, Hasselbeck said O'Donnell's comments were 'offensive and disturbing.' 

'I think her casting a stereotype on female athletes in what she said … and that all female athletes are a little bit gay … That’s an unfair stereotype and it seems selfish in a way and I think that it’s untrue,' she said.

On X (then Twitter), O'Donnell shot back: 'surely u recall b4 it all went wrong – i never objectified u – i did find u fantastic – broadway shows – my pool -we were friends once ❤️ god love ya kid – i always did.'