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(NEW YORK) — Days after denying it had made any hiring decisions, The View announced Thursday that Rosie O’Donnell is indeed returning to the ABC daytime talk show next season.
“It’s official! ABC confirms Rosie O’Donnell returns as co-host of #TheView w/ moderator Whoopi Goldberg for Season 18,” the show tweeted.
The announcement comes just days after a spokesperson for the show told ABC News, “We have no announcement to make and we are weeks away from making any type of announcement about anything pertaining to the show.”
O’Donnell was a co-host on the Emmy Award-winning talk show from 2006 to 2007. During her stint, O’Donnell carried on a feud with Donald Trump, and often bumped heads with then co-panelist Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Hasselbeck, a current co-host on Fox & Friends, interrupted her vacation on Wednesday to call into the Fox morning show to express her displeasure with O’Donnell’s return, which at that point was simply a rumor.
“I know Rosie very well. We worked together quite closely,” Hasselbeck said. “Talk about not securing the border. Here in comes to The View the very woman who spit in the face of our military, spit in the face of her own network, and really in the face of a person who stood by her and had civilized debates for the time that she was there.”
The View may have more announcements in the future as it is on the lookout for new faces to replace the departing Sherri Shepherd and Jenny McCarthy. The two announced last month they were leaving the show; those announcements followed the retirement of View creator Barbara Walters in May.
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