Variety reporter and author Ramin Setoodeh isn't done dropping bombshells about the hosts of "The View" just yet.
Speaking to Jenny McCarthy on her SiriusXM Radio show on Friday, April 5, Setoodeh — who released his tell-all, "Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of 'The View,'" on April 2 — made some new assertions about the nature of the long-running conflict between Rosie O'Donnell and Whoopi Goldberg.
From his perspective, Goldberg didn't agree with the changes O'Donnell wanted to make to the show when she returned as a co-host in 2014, years after Goldberg had replaced her as the moderator for "The View" following O'Donnell's controversial departure in 2007.
"I don't think [Goldberg] liked to be challenged," he said, according to Page Six.
"I think she had the most problems with Rosie O'Donnell because Rosie wanted to challenge her and wanted to change the show. Rosie felt like Whoopi was kind of checked out."
Though the author didn't elaborate on "the changes" O'Donnell was pushing for, Page Six notes she was never offered her original position on the show again.
According to Setoodeh, Goldberg dismissed O'Donnell's ideas, saying "The View" was "fine the way it is."
O'Donnell, however, was vocal about the problems she had with Goldberg. In a cover story Setoodeh wrote for Variety in 2014 about O'Donnell's return, she compared her "comeback process" to "The Hunger Games," describing the mock debates she and Goldberg were asked to have.
"It felt very negative and competitive," O'Donnell said.
She left the show again a year later. When asked if she was quitting because of the in-fighting on set, O'Donnell said "no" and attributed her decision to concern for her own health and her family.
"Rosie has teens and an infant at home that need her attention," said her rep, Cindi Berger. "This has been a very stressful situation. She is putting her personal health and family first. ABC has been wonderfully understanding and supportive of her personal decision to leave 'The View.'"