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Hasselbeck tells all on her ‘View’ of firing
Elisabeth Hasselbeck is likely wanting you to take a little time to enjoy her view in her book released Tuesday.
The one-time shoe designer turned “Survivor” competitor turned talkshow host revisits her trying days on “The View” and her firing, as well as anecdotes about her former co-hosts in her latest literary effort, “Point of View: A Fresh Look at Work, Faith, and Freedom” (WaterBrook, pp. 224). Hasselbeck, who has celiac disease, previously wrote “The GFree Diet” and “Deliciously G-Free.”
Hasselbeck, 41, holds nothing back when recounting her dismissal from ABC’s morning program, which she joined in 2003. She writes that in March 2013, things “had begun to feel unusual,” citing a number of guest hosts trickling through.
Hasselbeck writes that she was visited in her office one day by the producer of “The View” and an ABC exec who informed her that her contract would not be renewed and who explained that they were “going in a less political direction.” Hasselbeck was a conservative voice on the show and was rocked by the news.
“I could not breathe — literally, could not breathe,” she shares, revealing she “asked permission” to retrieve her inhaler. “I was bent over — shock, asthma and betrayal all stealing my wind.”
She said she expressed appreciation for her time on the show and asked, “Why?”
“‘Was there something I could have done differently?’ ” she asked. “‘Can I do something differently now? If you would just tell me, I would work on that — and make it better ... I kept asking, trying to figure out how to get it back, trying to get it all back.”
Hasselbeck writes that she was told there wasn’t anything she could’ve done. Still, in the moment, she grappled with the news.
“‘I have come here and had babies and shared my heart,’” she told the two men. “‘I have done my work, and I just don’t understand. Why did you not tell me there was something I could have done better, so I could have done that?’ Blank stares met those anguished words.”
According to Hasselbeck, she spent 90 minutes “just sobbing.”
Six years later, Hasselbeck writes that she was invited to return to the program as a co-host, which she turned down, explaining that God gave her “the freedom to let go” of that opportunity.
In addition to that terrible day, Hasselbeck recounts moments of her friendships with her former co-hosts.
Barbara Walters
Per Hasselbeck, the legendary journalist “fought to get approved” a sixweek maternity leave every time Hasselbeck had one of her three children.
Walters also was in her corner when she was reaching out to Roger Ailes, the former head of Fox News, about job opportunities. The former “20/20” host wrote Ailes, a gesture that “meant the world” to Hasselbeck, who hosted “Fox & Friends” immediately following her time on “The View,” from 2013 to 2015.
Whoopi Goldberg
Hasselbeck has love for the comedian, who recently made her return after battling pneumonia and sepsis. Though the author concedes she and Goldberg began “on the wrong foot,” she says the two are “forever friends.”
“Whoopi and I each think the other one is downright crazy when it comes to our stance on any given issue,” Hasselbeck writes. “And we love each other for who the other is instead of hating each other for what we each stand for.”
Joy Behar
Hasselbeck makes reference to a 2018 social-media post shared after Behar mocked Vice President Mike Pence.
The controversy began in mid-February, when the hosts reacted to a scene on CBS’ “Celebrity Big Brother” in which former White House staffer Omarosa Manigault Newman said Pence “thinks Jesus tells him to say things.”
At the time, Behar remarked, “It’s one thing to talk to Jesus. It’s another thing when Jesus talks to you. That’s called mental illness.”
“Using the spatula of humility would have come in handy when I originally began talking to my ‘View’ co-hosts about Jesus,” Hasselbeck says in “Point of View.” “But I was using a rigid tool of pride instead.”
She says she and her former colleague had a “Godversation,” which she defines as “a conversation minus condemnation when talking about God.”
In her Instagram post, Hasselbeck reflected on conversations with Behar.
“For 10 years she and I debated, and reacting in those situations perhaps I could have offered a more tender witness to this awesome God- instead many times- I reacted,” she writes. “Did I always show grace ... sometimes not. And sometimes I felt the need to stand firm and be bold... For now, I pray to always be able to have grace filled #Godversations like this...”
Behar apologized for her comments last March.
Rosie O’Donnell
Representatives for Hasselbeck did not immediately respond to an inquiry from USA TODAY about why O’Donnell wasn’t mentioned in the book. O’Donnell co-hosted “The View” with Hasselbeck from 2006 to 2007 and often sparred with Hasselbeck over politics.
The day before the release of “Point of View,” another book about the talk show, “Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of ‘The View,’ ” made headlines as it revealed that O’Donnell “loved” Hasselbeck. In the work from Variety’s New York bureau chief, Ramin Setoodeh, shared with the outlet, O’Donnell said she wanted to educate her colleague.
“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 said, according to Variety.