Rosie O’Donnell Shades Meghan McCain As ‘Mean’ & Says Her Time On ‘The View’ Was ‘Thorny’

Rosie O’Donnell has an issue with Meghan McCain’s attitude towards Joy Behar on ‘The View,’ and didn’t hesitate to explain why. She even revealed a surprise run-in with another star from the talk show — Whoopi Goldberg!

Rosie O’Donnell, 57, knew she was sitting in Andy Cohen’s hot seat, because she delivered nothing but her honest opinion on the June 24 episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. A fan wrote in to ask what Rosie thinks of Meghan McCain, 34, who joined The View in Oct. 2017 (about two years after Rosie left the same show). “I had the pleasure of working with her father [John McCain] for a lot of the Wounded Warrior project, so [I] got to know him through there and you know, I think she’s in a difficult position…she was very tight with her father,” Rosie replied, starting off on a sympathetic note as Meghan’s father had passed away from brain cancer in Aug. 2018. She then switched gears: “I do have some compassion for her, although I wish she wouldn’t be mean to Joy Behar, who is like a living legend and who should be respected for no other reason than she’s the elder statesman in the room.”

Just last week (June 19), Meghan called Joy — who is 42 years her senior — a “b**tch” over a discussion about Donald Trump and his 2020 re-election campaign. That was just one heated exchange among many between the two co-hosts, although Rosie did point out that she doesn’t watch The View at the moment. A surprising confession, considering that The Flinstones star was once a co-host herself between 2006 and 2007, and again between 2014 and 2015 (she worked with co-hosts Rosie Perez and Nicolle Wallace, along with moderator Whoopi Goldberg the second time around).

Reflecting on her old gig, Rosie was grateful for the opportunity to work on a talk show but added, “The thorns were it got a little ‘thorny’ there, and that’s being diplomatic.” Ah — that sly diss at the end! That recalls what Rosie told journalist Ramin Setoodeh in the new book Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of The View! “Whoopi Goldberg was as mean as anyone has ever been on television to me, personally — while I was sitting there. Worse than Fox News. The worst experience I’ve ever had on live television was interacting with her,” Rosie told Ramin, according to an excerpt that E! News relayed on March 27.

Surprisingly, Rosie revealed to Andy that she and Whoopi were “very cordial” after bumping into one another at Megan Mullaly’s concert! Rosie even said she will always “respect” her former co-worker and “look up to her.”