Why Rosie O’Donnell Was Never on Ellen, Wanted to ‘Throw a Sock’ at Elisabeth Hasselbeck

Andy Cohen tried to get to the bottom of things when Rosie dropped by “Watch What Happens Live,” and it turns out the situation is a little more complicated than it may first appear — but it starts with Ellen hurting Rosie’s feelings.

As Rosie explained it, the moment came shortly after her top-rated show went off the air and Ellen began her run that would become to the top-rated show. As she recalled quite vividly all these years later, it was how Ellen responded to a question from Larry King.

Doing an impression of the late host, Rosie asked, “Whatever happened to Rosie O’Donnell? Her show went down the tubes. She came out as a lesbian and disappeared.”

She then said that she was quoting Ellen’s exact response to Larry’s question, which was, “I don’t know Rosie. We’re not friends.”

Rosie recalled turning to her girlfriend at the time, Kelli Carpenter, and asked, “Did I just hear that or was that, like, a hallucination auditory voice?”

“I’m like, no, and that’s what happened, and it hurt my feelings like a baby and I never really got over it,” she told Andy, and it’s clear that she didn’t because all these years later, she still remembers it quite clearly.

It’s especially notable because when Ellen was about to come out as gay on her sitcom — and in real life — she appeared on Rosie’s show and famously joked that her character was going to come out as “Lebanese.”

But, as Andy quickly pointed out, that explains why Rosie’s feelings were hurt, but it doesn’t explain why the show never invited her on as a guest. As it turns out, though, they did — it just took them a long time to do it.

“I was gonna go on for ‘SMILF,’” said Rosie, referring to her 2017-19 Showtime series. “But I wanted to bring someone with me ‘cause I thought it might be a little less awkward and they didn’t want to do that.”

Nevertheless, Rosie made it clear she harbors no ill feelings toward Ellen, saying, “I wish her all good things in her life and that she should be well.”

Her feelings weren’t quite so positive toward Elisabeth Hasselbeck, another person she once shared the screen with and hasn’t spoken to in years and years. In fact, Rosie said she and Elisebeth haven’t spoken since their infamous 2007 split-screen fight on “The View” that led to Rosie quitting over how it was handled.

A caller asked her about recent comments she’d made after Elisabeth’s recent return as a guest on “The View” where she poked fun at the First Lady’s admitted penchant for leaving Post-It notes by wearing notes criticizing President Biden.

“She came out with little Post-It notes,” Rosie said. “She’s like, ‘Here’s the Post-It notes I have for Joe Biden. You know, ‘Joe, the gas is too high,’ ‘Joe, how’s this workin’ for ya?’ ‘Joe, hey, Joe.’ And I was like [eugghh!] I wished I was there to, like, throw a sock at her or something.”

Shortly after Elisabeth’s return in early August, Rosie took to TikTok to share her thoughts after seeing her friend-turned-foe, calling it “strange” and saying, “I remembered why I don’t want to watch it with her anymore.”