Now that it’s all over the place, Rosie O’Donnell is making sure that people know that there was more reasons than her just leaving another wife that caused her to leave the daytime talkfest “The View”. Granted, that would be enough to cause a problem but Sherri Shepherd made it through her divorce, and it was messy, without having to leave the show. Thankfully, the show left her. O’Donnell is taking better care of herself these days, and it seems that the stress levels on the ABC show were really getting to her.
Rosie O’Donnell further explained her decision to leave ABC’s troubled daytime talk show “The View”, People Magazine reported today.
The comedian/actress said that this was what her doctor ordered as she suffered a near fatal heart attack in 2012 and is taking much better care of herself since.
“My doctors were noticing that there was an uptick in my numbers since I started on the show,” she said. “It got a little bit worse right before the holidays, and my doctor was kind of concerned, so when I went back after the holiday break, she said to me, ‘You know, the stress level is too much,’ ”
O’Donnell denies that infighting between the multiple hosts and producers caused her decision.
“No,” she said. “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. It never was and it 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.”
While the gossip columns had been following O’Donnell’s antics on the set of “The View,” they’ve had not paid attention to her personal life, which had been floundering as she and her wife Michelle Rounds have now decided to split up. With all the tumult, she feels it’s better to leave the daytime show and focus on her five children. She and Rounds separated in November after being married for nearly three years. They were married in a private ceremony in June 2012, and they adopted a baby girl, Dakota in 2013.
Rosie’s rep, Cindi Berger, confirmed the marital split, as well O’Donnell’s departure from “The View,” in a statement Friday night: “I can confirm that Rosie and her wife Michelle split in November. Rosie has teens and an infant at home that need her attention. This has been a very stressful situation. She is putting her personal health and family first. ABC has been wonderfully understanding and supportive of her personal decision to leave ‘The View.’ Next week will be her last.”
“Rosie is an immensely talented star who comes in each and every morning brimming with ideas, excitement and passion for the show,” an ABC rep said in a statement to THR. “When she told us that she wanted to exit The View, we respected and understood her desire to put her well-being and her family first. We’re delighted she’s still part of the ABC family with upcoming guest appearances on The Fosters. And we know she’ll return to The View often with her unique point of view and updates on her work and her family.”
“The View” tried shaking things up in September to stave off low ratings numbers after the rough year with Sherri Shepherd and Jenny McCarthy which drove viewers off in the demographics that ABC covets. Bringing back Rosie O’Donnell seemed like a good idea as you never knew what she would say, and that kept viewers coming back whether they liked her or didn’t. Adding Rosie Perez, hoping to pull in a different demographic along with Republican Nicole Wallace just hasn’t had the impact they were hoping for.
ABC has remained quiet on who will fill her seat on “The View” along with Rosie Perez as it has been widely rumored.