Ramin Setoodeh dives into the talk show's 22 seasons and says there was head butting and cat fighting in his new book "Ladies Who Punch."
A new book has exposed what allegedly goes on behind the scenes at “The View.”
Ramin Setoodeh is the author of “Ladies Who Punch,” the new book about the talk show that's been going strong for 22 seasons.
“It is truly a very dramatic show, and there is constant friction behind the scenes as well as on camera,” he told Inside Edition.
"The View" first aired in 1997 as the brain child of Barbara Walters, and she allegedly ruled the roost with an iron fist.
He says Walters butted heads with many of her co-hosts, including Rosie O'Donnell and Whoopi Goldberg.
“Whoopi also resented the fact that Barbara Walters was obsessed with the moderators chair and Barbara would constantly be talking about things she would have done differently,” Setoodeh said.
Walters retired in 2014 but she didn’t want to go, according to the author.
“Barbara never really wanted to retire and she had a yearlong going away on ‘The View’ and on ABC, I think she was scared,” he said.
O’Donnell’s tenure at "The View" was notoriously rocky by fighting with former co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck.
The book also includes a quote from O’Donnell saying she had a "crush" on Hasselbeck, a revelation that is causing shockwaves. But the author says that's not what the comic meant.
“She had a crush, it wasn’t a sexual crush but she had a crush on Elisabeth and I don’t think it was ever meant to be anything bigger than that," the author explained.
Setoodeh discovered that Hasselbeck almost quit after a moment when Walters appeared to reprimand her on live TV. At the commercial break, Hasselbeck stormed off the set, he says.
"She left the stage, she was fed up with Barbara Walters, she felt disrespected by Barbara Walters, she was furious and didn’t want to come back. The executive producer had to go and physically get her and pleaded with her and said, ‘You are a professional and you have to come back,'" Setoodeh explained.
With just seconds to spare, Hasselbeck was back on the set.
Click here to read an excerpt from "Ladies Who Punch."
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