Photo: Terry Wyatt/Getty
A week afterJenny McCarthy’s damning claims about her time onThe Viewcame out, Elisabeth Hasselbeck released a book with a more positive perspective about her 10 years at the show’s table — though she admits that during her second week, “the gloves came off.”
“The show was not calledThe ViewsorDifferent ViewsorHonoring One Another’s Views,” the former broadcaster, 41, writes inPoint of View: A Fresh Look at Work, Faith, and Freedom, out Tuesday. “It was calledThe View,as in definite and singular. Yes, there were bonds of friendship formed around the table despite opposing views, but there were also bonds broken because of those differing perspectives.”
A former shoe designer who starred in the second season ofSurvivor, Hasselbeck writes that when she came on to the show in 2003, she was not well-versed in discussing politics. Hasselbeck also struggled being the sole conservative voice onThe Viewand wanted to spend time with the three young children (Isaiah, Grace, and Taylor) she shares with her husband, Tim Hasselbeck, a quarterback turned ESPN analyst.
“Like a fighter after ten rounds in a ring, I was exhausted from holding one side of the issue alone, though happy to do it,” she writes, “and I needed the faces of my kids to be close to mine as soon as possible.”
Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Barbara Walters.Heidi Gutman/ABC via Getty
While Hasselbeck struggled when their discussions “sounded more like a catfight than a smart debate,” she’s thankful for the incredible opportunities she had because of the show. She also has a lot of love for her cohosts, unlike Jenny McCarthy, who described her time on the show as “miserable.”
In a new book about the show,Ladies Who Punch, McCarthy told author Ramin Setoodeh thatBarbara Walters, the legendary broadcaster who launched the talk show in 1997, was controlling and critical. She also claims that co-hostWhoopi Goldberg “had an addiction” to controlling people.
Barbara Walters, Whoopi Goldberg, and Elisabeth Hasselbeck.Jim Spellman/WireImage
“Working for and with Barbara Walters remains one of the most educational times of my life,” Hasselbeck writes. “When I arrived atThe View,I was newly married, in my midtwenties, and really inexperienced when it came to television, politics, and debating. By the time I walked out of the building on that last day, I had three children, and thanks to her, a wealth of experience.”
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“The so-called hard news, a woman couldn’t do it. The audience wouldn’t accept her voice,” Walters said in a 2015Oprah’s Master Classvideo. “She couldn’t go into the war zones, she couldn’t ask the tough questions.”
So, Walters said, she refused to back down.
“Some people admired it. Others said, ‘She’s rude,'” Walters said. “On the one hand, it made me more valuable; on the other hand, I got the reputation as being a pushy cookie. ‘There goes that pushy cookie.'”
Bruce Glikas/Getty
Hasselbeck got support of a different kind from Goldberg. Though their relationship started off “on the wrong foot,” that quickly changed, according toPoint of View.
The award-winning talk show host writes that when she first met Goldberg, who has vastly different political views than her, “we approached each other like two stranger dogs at a the park — circling, then a little biting, and then … forever friends.”
Elisabeth Hasselbeck and family.Matthew Peyton/Getty
While Hasselbeck considers her time onThe Viewthe “most ‘difficult-easy’ job” she’s ever had, she was still devastated when she was told that her contract wouldn’t be renewed after 10 years on the show. She writes that she broke down sobbing and scrambled to find her inhaler (“Was there something I could have done differently?” she remembers asking the show’s producer and an ABC executive).
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“I felt thankful that I was able to connect with Candace Cameron Bure and pass her the torch, along with all the advice and wisdom I had to offer, so she could carry the flame,” Hasselbeck writes. “When we are called to leave a place, even when it is not our choice, choosing to leave well and pass the torch well will be worth it.”
Hasselbeck made headlines earlier this week when formerViewcostar Rosie O’Donnell said in Setoodeh’s book that shehad a “a little bit of a crush” on herwhen they worked together (and frequently clashed on-air).
“I can handle that with the grace of God because I need grace and I need forgiveness. So Rosie, I think it was disturbing to read those things and it was offensive to me, but I forgive her. I totally forgive you, Rosie,“Hasselbeck said TuesdayonFox and Friends. “I really hope that we can be at peace and that we can both hold our beliefs in one hand and hold each other’s hand in the other and still have a relationship that’s at peace.”
Later Tuesday, she appeared as a guest onThe Viewand discussed being fired in 2013.
“I wrote a lot about that process behind the scenes and what that was like for me. At the time, I couldn’t see behind that,” she said. “I felt a little prideful. I felt hurt and wounded. I felt like, ‘Wait a minute, who are they going to get to do this job? It’s not easy.’ I was pridefully wounded. I was hurt. I’m just trying to do my job for 10 years. I’m a loyal person, which is why I felt a dose of betrayal. … I can look back on that time and that challenge and see it pushed me to a new place and really made me rely more on my abilities and what god could do. "
Point of Viewis on sale now.
source: people.com
