They seemed like mortal enemies -- especially after a 10-minute fight over the Iraq War in 2007 -- but O'Donnell says "I loved her" of Hasselbeck in Ramin Setoodeh's upcoming book Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of The View: "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,'" says O'Donnell. O'Donnell also admits she had a crush on Hasselbeck. “I think there were underlying lesbian undertones on both parts,” O’Donnell says about her working relationship with Hasselbeck, adding: “There was a little bit of a crush. But 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.”
TOPICS: Rosie O'Donnell, ABC, The View, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Daytime TV, TV Books