12 Nastiest Feuds On ‘The View’

By Brent Furdyk. 9 Apr 2019 8:38 AM

The recent publication of Ramin Setoodeh’s new tell-all Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of ‘The View’ is turning a spotlight on how much of a snake pit (allegedly) “The View” has been behind the scenes, detailing numerous (alleged) feuds between the show’s co-hosts over the years. Here, according to the book, are the 12 most vicious.

Jenny McCarthy vs. Barbara Walters

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Rosie O'Donnell vs. Whoopi Goldberg

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Elisabeth Hasselbeck vs. Rosie O'Donnell

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Whoopi Goldberg vs. Jenny McCarthy

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Barbara Walters vs. Star Jones

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Joy Behar vs. Elisabeth Hasselbeck

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Whoopi Goldberg vs. Barbara Walters

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Barbara Walters vs. Rosie O'Donnell

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Star Jones vs. Joy Behar

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Jenny McCarthy vs. Joy Behar

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Elisabeth Hasselbeck vs. Barbara Walters

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Joy Behar Vs. Meghan McCain

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Jenny McCarthy vs. Barbara Walters
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Jenny McCarthy recalled her single season on the show as "miserable," stating, “You know the movie 'Mommie Dearest'? I remember as a child watching that movie and going, ‘Holy cow!' I’ve never seen a woman yell like that before until I worked with Barbara Walters."

McCarthy recalled one incident in particular after she discussed her controversial views on autism and vaccines. “I walked into her dressing room and she blew up at me,” McCarthy told the book. “She was screaming, ‘How dare you say this! That autism can be cured?’ My knees were shaking. I remember my whole body was shaking.”
Rosie O'Donnell vs. Whoopi Goldberg
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While many of the feuds in Setoodeh's book played out behind the scenes, Rosie O'Donnell's simmering feud with Whoopi Goldberg played out right on the air. “Some people would say, ‘What’s going on with you and Whoopi?’" O’Donnell said in the book. “I was like, ‘Are you watching the show? It’s pretty much right there.’ I have no desire for a public feud.”

She added: “Whoopi Goldberg was as mean as anyone has ever been on television to me, personally, while I was sitting there. Worse than Fox News. The worst experience I’ve ever had on live television was interacting with her.”
Elisabeth Hasselbeck vs. Rosie O'Donnell
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Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Rosie O'Donnell may have been on opposite ends of the political spectrum but they reportedly had a friendly off-air relationship O'Donnell even told Setoodeh she had "a little bit of a crush" on Hasselbeck, speaking of "underlying lesbian overtones."

However, the pair had a vicious on-air blowup in 2007 while discussing the Iraq war. "You are my friend since September. Do you believe that I think our troops are terrorists? And you would not even look me in the face, Elisabeth, and say, 'No, Rosie,'" O'Donnell told Hasselbeck during the heated exchange. "Every time I defend [my opinions], it's poor little Elisabeth that I'm picking on."

O'Donnell asked to be released from her contract two days later.
Whoopi Goldberg vs. Jenny McCarthy
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McCarthy told the author that moderator Whoopi Goldberg would regularly shut her down and barely let her finish making a point. “I was able to get a point out in three words — like ‘I don’t agree’ — and that’s all I would be able to say. I would be stepped on or interrupted,” she said. “To me, Whoopi had an addiction to controlling people’s thoughts, their words, the room, the table, your feelings, your mood. She had an addiction to controlling all of it and everybody.”

Speaking with Setoodeh on her SiriusXM radio show, McCarthy added: “I will say, Whoopi would throw to a commercial break just as you wanted to make your point of view and she had a very dominating voice... almost like fierce, you don’t want to f**k with her.”
Barbara Walters vs. Star Jones
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When lawyer-turned "View" co-host Star Jones returned from hiatus markedly thinner, her co-hosts were forced to keep the secret that she'd actually had gastric bypass surgery, which irked Barbara Walters enough that she and her co-stars reportedly leaked the info to the press in the midst of Jones being fired.

“Star Jones said, as she was being fired in 2006, both Barbara Walters and Joy Behar were leaking stories about her gastric bypass to the New York Post to ruin her reputation,” Setoodeh said in a recent appearance on "Watch What Happens Live". “Then, when she left and surprised everyone… [Jones] used Judy Smith, who was the inspiration for Olivia Pope on ‘Scandal’, to orchestrate her entire exit, where she just quit on live television.”
Joy Behar vs. Elisabeth Hasselbeck
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While Behar and Hasselbeck got into their fair share of on-air tussles, Behar took a nasty shot at her former co-host during a 2014 CNN interview over some snide comments that then-Fox News host Hasselbeck made about Rosie O'Donnell's return to "The View". Hasselbeck described O'Donnell as someone who "spit in the face of our military, spit in the face of her own network, and really in the face of a person who stood by her and had civilized debates for the time that she was there.”

Behar fired back, describing Hasselbeck's remarks as “below the belt” and “hate-filled," adding, “Everything’s fiction on Fox anyway."
Whoopi Goldberg vs. Barbara Walters
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In the book, Jenny McCarthy claims that Whoopi Goldberg's control-freak tendencies extended to Barbara Walters, who was, for all intents and purposes, her boss.

“It broke my heart when Barbara would shuffle to Whoopi and say, ‘Can I moderate, please?’ And Whoopi would say no,” said McCarthy, comparing the atmosphere to an episode of "Survivor".
Barbara Walters vs. Rosie O'Donnell
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Before he caused an entire country to split in two, Donald Trump's ugly feud with Rosie O'Donnell caused a rift between her and Barbara Walters.

As Trump's attacks on O'Donnell grew nastier, she felt Walters wasn't standing up for her, leading to a backstage confrontation. “I definitely yelled,” O’Donnell told Setoodeh. “I said how disappointed I was and how shocked and hurt I was that she wouldn’t stand up for me. I felt very betrayed about her going behind my back and speaking to Donald Trump in Trumpian language. I said something about her daughter, which I should not have said. But I did.”

"View" exec producer Bill Geddie wound up stepping in to end the fight. “I can’t tell you everything she [O’Donnell] said but it was nasty,” he said. “And she does it for about 40 seconds, maybe a minute. I finally said, ‘Enough. You can’t talk to her anymore like this.’ And she turned on me, saying how much she hated me for a variety of reasons.”
Star Jones vs. Joy Behar
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Star Jones' dressing room at "The View" was reportedly quite the mess. "It looked as if it were out of a 'Hoarders' episode," writes Setoodeh. "It was stacked with clothes and shoes. That made it the perfect hideout for vermin. One night, the janitor complained to Joy that he’d just swept up the carcass of a crushed mouse from the floor of Star’s dressing room and that Star must have stepped on it and killed it without knowing."

According to Setoodeh, by that point Behar "had grown to detest" her co-star so much that she gleefully told the story of the dead rodent to anyone who would listen.
Jenny McCarthy vs. Joy Behar
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Back in 2015, Behar took a shot at McCarthy over her controversial stance on vaccinations.

“Why doesn’t Jenny run for president?” said Behar sarcastically during an appearance on "Morning Joe". “This is this neanderthal thinking on the right that is really scary and dangerous. “I mean they’re going to kill us."
Elisabeth Hasselbeck vs. Barbara Walters
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In 2006, the New York Post reported that Hasselbeck stormed off the set after a heated on-air exchange with Walters about the morning-after pill.

“What the f**k!" Hasselbeck reportedly griped to Joy Behar. "I don’t even swear. She has me swearing. This woman is driving me nuts. I’m not going back. I can’t do the show like this. She just reprimanded me, and she knew exactly what she was doing. Goodbye! I’m off. Read about that in the New York f**king Post!”

Hasselbeck and Walters must have buried the hatchet, because the former "Survivor" star stuck around until 2013.
Joy Behar Vs. Meghan McCain
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Joy Behar and Meghan McCain have clashed so frequently on "The View" there just isn't room to list all their myriad dust-ups.

But as a sort of "greatest hits" package, let's recall: McCain sarcastically asking Behar if she has "permission to speak" after Behar shut her down; the pair getting into a shouting match over right-wing commentator Ann Coulter; and reports that Behar was so frustrated with McCain that, during a commercial break, she shouted at producers to "get this b***h under control."

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