Rosie O’Donnell may not have the fondest memories of her time as a co-host of “The View,” but she only has good things to say about the show’s moderator, Whoopi Goldberg.
The comedian joined Andy Cohen on SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live for an interview on June 16, where she was asked about recently reuniting with Goldberg backstage at a performance of Cats: The Jellicle Ball on Broadway.
Her comments come after Whoopi recently revealed on the ABC morning show that the pair had an unexpected run-in at the June 9 performance.
Rosie Details Recent Run-In
“I saw that you ran into Whoopi backstage at the Jellicle Ball. What was that like?” asked Cohen during O’Donnell’s appearance, as Rosie explained she made a cameo during the show as an on-stage judge.
“It’s so fun. It’s so fun, and what a great show, and what a wonderful gay history lesson for everyone in that audience when they talk about gay liberation and who were the people who came before us so bravely and boldly,” she continued.
“You know, it was really beautiful, but I got up there, and I looked in the audience, and I thought, ‘That can’t be Whoopi Goldberg, right?’ But, you know, she’s pretty identifiable,” Rosie added. “You know, it’s not like a lot of people look like Whoop, and so, you know, she’s been very kind.”
“I’ve seen her a couple times since our disastrous tag-team hellacious ‘View’ extravaganza,” O’Donnell shared. “But she was there with her daughter and told me that she just became a great-grandmother again or something, and she had a baby young and her daughter had them young, so she doesn’t look like a great-grandmother, and she looks fantastic.”
Rosie first served as moderator and co-host of “The View” during the show’s tenth season from 2006-2007, leaving after a contract dispute and on-air dustup with co-star Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Goldberg was then brought in to replace her as moderator.
O’Donnell returned as co-host in 2014, alongside Goldberg as moderator and co-hosts Rosie Perez and Nicole Wallace. She, however, left again in February 2015, citing health concerns. She later said she and Goldberg had a tense relationship during their time together; that being said, Rosie added she always had “respect” for her.
Whoopi’s Kind Words for Rosie
Goldberg also spoke about her reunion with O’Donnell on the June 10 episode of “The View.”
“Rosie was there, she looks amazing,” she told her co-hosts and studio audience at the time. “She has a one-woman show she’s doing, too. She’s got all kinds of great stuff going on, but she looked amazing. It was terrific.”
Goldberg’s comments about O’Donnell’s appearance come after Rosie revealed she recently underwent a facelift.
O’Donnell opened up about going under the knife in a Substack essay shared on May 26, 2026. In the vulnerable post, she shared why she decided to get work done, despite always being against the procedure.
“I wanted to still be me, just… less haunted. and it worked – I do look like me – A slightly more well-rested emotionally stable version of me,” she wrote on her Substack.
Despite believing that getting a facelift was a “betrayal of feminism. Of aging. Og our team or women worldwide,” O’Donnell’s outlook on surgery shifted after her recent 50-pound weight loss.
“It wasn’t wrinkles – it was gravity,” she wrote. “I’d look in the mirror and think – this isn’t aging, this is melting with intention.”
After going under the knife in January 2026, she added that she’s very happy with the results.
