Before Meghan McCain’s “very dramatic” 2021 exit as a cohost of The View — which she previously likened to “a bomb going off” — the daughter of the late Senator John McCain has revealed that she received a heads-up about the show’s alleged working environment from another former panelist: Rosie O’Donnell.

During a recent appearance on the Your Welcome podcast with Michael Malice, McCain reacted to one of the host’s observations about a past on-air interaction between O’Donnell and The View creator Barbara Walters over wealth and income, with Malice delighting in Walters’ discomfort over O’Donnell pointing out the elegant nature of her home.

“It’s funny because Rosie, I know she’s in Ireland and has sort of banished herself from America, I’ve always had great interactions with her, for whatever that’s worth,” McCain noted.

The same can’t be said, however, for McCain’s relationship with other View cohosts, as the conservative commentator has regularly slammed her former workplace and its current lineup of hosts, whom she once labeled “crazy old people” who bully her.

“I’ve always got along with [O’Donnell]. She was actually the first person that warned me The View is a cesspool,” McCain added. “She’s another one that, she’s worth a bajillion dollars and she has a ton of Emmys, but I think people relate to her. I think it’s because she’s been very open about struggles, her kids have struggled a lot publicly. She’s not skinny either. She’s been through a lot and is open. I think if you’re raw and open, people will respond to it.”

A source tells Entertainment Weekly that O’Donnell spoke to McCain about The View during intermission at a 2018 Broadway performance of Disney’s Frozen, months after McCain boarded the show in October 2017.

Rosie O’Donnell and Barbara Walters on ‘The View’.Steve Fenn/ABC

McCain, who also admitted she knows that when she walks into a room, people automatically think of her as a “spoiled nepo baby” because of her famous father (whom she often brought up during her time on The View), said that the U.S. is in an odd political moment where “having a last name now is a detriment” and not an advantage.

EW has reached out to representatives for The View, McCain, and O’Donnell — whom McCain previously indicated would join her as a guest on her podcast, though the appearance never materialized — for comment.

Though McCain and the comedian-actress never cohosted The View together as part of the same permanent panel, both have been critical of the show in the years since their respective departures. O’Donnell, who famously engaged in a highly publicized on-air fight with former cohost Elisabeth Hasselbeck (who also regularly criticizes the show) in 2007, even likened her experience on the program to having to “defend basic principles of humanity and kindness” each day she went to work.

After her original stint at the Hot Topics table from 2006 to 2007, O’Donnell, who also hosted her own successful, self-titled talk show throughout the 1990s, returned for one more round of The View episodes in 2014, but left shortly after rejoining the cast.

In a 2024 interview about the release of her novel Summer on Highland Beach, current View cohost Sunny Hostin commented on McCain’s post-show behavior when asked what she thought about McCain unfollowing her on Instagram.

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“I didn’t know,” Hostin told EW with a laugh. “I didn’t know anything happened. I’m not on social media like that. I guess I’ll give her a call. Maybe she broke up with me and I don’t know it. I don’t know what to say. I don’t think anything happened!”

The View airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET/10 a.m. PT on ABC. Listen to McCain discuss O’Donnell and her time on the show above.