Rosie O'Donnell quit ABC's "The View" for the second time but insists it has nothing to do with a feud between her and another cohost. In 2007, the 52-year-old abruptly left the show after an on-camera fight with Elisabeth Hasselbeck; over the weekend her rep announced that O'Donnell would be leaving "The View" next week.
While chatting with "Entertainment Tonight," O'Donnell said she decided to leave the daytime talk show because things were too stressful for her.
"Stress is a major contributing factor to heart disease and heart attacks. You can't really minimize it so I'm having a lot of stressful situations in my family life at the moment and having stressful situations in my work environment, so something had to give," she said.
"Most easy way to accomplish the lessening of the stress is to not go to work for right now," O'Donnell added.
It was rumored that O'Donnell and her costar Whoopi Goldberg were bickering on set but the comedienne denied that her exit had anything to do with the moderator.
"No. This is definitely about my heart. It's about [the] company of Disney being amazing... When I sat down with them and said, 'Here is the deal, this is what's been going on with me personally and professionally,' they were great... It's not about anybody else," she said."It never was and never will be. Everybody wants a show to work and for it to succeed. But [what] you want mostly is to take care of your health."
On Friday, her rep also announced that O'Donnell had split from her wife of three years, Michelle Rounds, back in November. According to "Entertainment Tonight" O'Donnell's rep said the actress needed to take some time to focus on her family and her health.
ABC has not announced whether a new cohost would join Goldberg, Nicolle Wallace and Rosie Perez on the show.
