Elisabeth Hasselbeck on ‘Fox & Friends.’ (Screenshot via Fox)
Elisabeth Hasselbeck says she “immediately started praying” after hearing that Rosie O’Donnell had a crush on her when they were co-hosts on “The View.”
In O’Donnell’s new memoir “Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of ‘The View,’” O’Donnell revealed she once had a “little bit of a crush” on Hasselbeck but that it wasn’t sexual.
“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,” O’Donnell writes.’” “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.”
Hasselbeck appeared on “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday and called O’Donnell’s comments “disturbing.”
“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,” Hasselbeck says.
She continued: “I think what she said was reckless, untrue and, not only insulting, disturbing when it comes to how she felt about somebody in the workplace. If you replace what Rosie said and you take her name out and you put in ‘Reuben’ or ‘Robert’ then we would be in a situation where you would see the objectification of a woman in the workplace. That’s disturbing because where we may be really against that when it comes from a man to a woman, you don’t get a pass because you’re a lesbian objectifying a woman in the workplace. You just don’t.”
O’Donnell also noted in her book that there were “underlying lesbian tones on both [of their] parts” and hinted it was because Hasselbeck is a former softball player.
“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 wrote.
Hasselbeck felt O’Donnell was stereotyping women who play sports.
“I think her casting a stereotype on female athletes and 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,’” Hasselbeck says.
Ultimately, Hasselbeck says she forgives O’Donnell despite her “disturbing” and “offensive” remarks.
“I can handle that with the grace of God because I need grace and I need forgiveness,” Hasselbeck says. “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 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.”
O’Donnell responded on Twitter that she’s “sorry” Hasselbeck “got scared.”
hey eh – my crush on u was not sexual – sorry u got scared – ❤️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 #hasselbeck #raminSUX
— ROSIE (@Rosie) March 26, 2019
Hasselbeck and O’Donnell’s feud infamously butted heads on “The View”during an argument about the Iraq War in 2007.
