Rosie O’Donnell Explains Why She Played Hooky from ‘The View’ Barbara Walters Tribute, Didn’t Want to be Around Big Group of People or ‘Get Upset’

Former moderator at ABC’s “The View” Rosie O’Donnell explained today why she was a no-show at a tribute for Barbara Walters.

According to O’Donnell, she didn’t want to be around a big group of people or “get upset” if she were to have attended.

O’Donnell was told by a fan on TikTok that they had looked for her at the tribute and she responded, “Yeah, they invited me, but I wasn’t able to make it.”

“You know, I didn’t want to be in a big group of people. I don’t know, I was worried that I would get upset and didn’t want to do that, so there you go,” O’Donnell explained.

During yesterday’s episode, current hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines, and Alyssa Farah Griffin were joined by Vieira, Star Jones, Matenopoulos, Lisa Ling, Sherri Sheperd, and Elisabeth Hasselbeck either in-person or virtually for the tribute to Walters.

O’Donnell did, however, offer a TikTok tribute to Walters on Friday night where she said, “Very sad to hear about Barbara Walters passing.”

“Although, 93, man. Who wouldn’t take that? What a long and eventful and legendary life she had?” O’Donnell pointed out.

O’Donnell added, “Spoke to every prominent world leader in memory. Interviewed everyone who was anyone, and I was lucky enough to be in her orbit for a good many years. And we saw a lot of Broadway shows together. And whenever we’d go backstage, I’d, like, try to help her with the steps backstage.”

As we previously reported, Walters was the founder of “The View,” and O’Donnell’s time on the program was short, lasting only from September 2006 to May 2007.

O’Donnell later revealed that they had a heated dressing room argument in 2006 over Walters not defending O’Donnell enough amid her feud with former President and 2024 GOP Presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Donald Trump Gives Touching Goodbye to Barbara Walters, ‘She Was the Greatest of them all, By Far’