Rosie O'Donnell said interacting with Whoopi Goldberg was 'worst experience' she's ever had on TV

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By Asiya Ali

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Rosie O'Donnell has candidly opened up about her rocky experience hosting The View with Whoopi Goldberg.

The 61-year-old comedian had two brief stints on the long-running talk show which has been around since 1997. She first began hosting in 2006 but left in 2007 after clashing with co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

She then returned again in 2014 - when Goldberg was also a cohost - and then departed once more in 2015 after tensions continued to rise on set.

Now, O'Donnell appeared on Brooke Shields' podcast, Now What? With Brooke Shields, and spoke about her time working with the 67-year-old Sister Act actress.

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Rosie O'Donnell said she "clashed in ways" with Whoopi Goldberg while hosting The View. Credit: WENN Rights Ltd / Alamy

"We clashed in ways that I was shocked by," O'Donnell said of her working relationship with Goldberg. She explained that since she had experience producing her own daytime talk show - The Rosie O'Donnell Show, which aired from 1996 to 2002 - she wasn't used to "not having any power to make decisions" about the topics that would be covered on the show.

The Tarzan actress said that there was challenging content she was interested in discussing on TV, but Bill Getty - the executive producer of the TV show at the time - insisted that the hosts talk about "the new fall lipstick colors".

O'Donnell claimed that during her second time as a co-host, disgraced actor Bill Cosby's sexual assault allegations were "a big topic" in the news and she wanted to discuss it while "Whoopi did not".

However, the latter did actually speak about the allegations on the show in 2015 and said: "I don't like snap judgments because I've had snap judgments made on me, so I'm very very careful… save your texts, save your nasty comments... I don't care," according to The Wrap.

Essentially, the star was stating that people in the US justice system are innocent until proven guilty. But, she ended up reversing her opinion on Cosby in an interview with ABC News chief legal analyst Dan Abrams.

"If this is to be tried in the court of public opinion, I got to say all of the information that's out there kind of points to guilt," she said, as cited by CNN.

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O'Donnell described Goldberg as "mean" in the Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of The View, book by Ramin Setoodeh. Credit: MediaPunch Inc / Alamy

Per People, the A League of Their Own star remarked that Goldberg was "mean" in a book about the ABC show, Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of The View, written by Ramin Setoodeh.

"Whoopi Goldberg was as mean as anyone has ever been on television to me, personally - while I was sitting there," she said. "The worst experience I’ve ever had on live television was interacting with her."

O’Donnell also admitted that despite her "painful experience" with Goldberg, she will "never not have respect" for her, adding: "She’s a minority, feminist, smart, funny, groundbreaking legend who is black in America."

Featured image credit: WENN Rights Ltd / Alamy