Rosie O’Donnell is exiting ABC’s The View for a second time, her representative has confirmed.
Rosie O’Donnell will exit the talkshow next week to concentrate on her family, following a split from wife Michelle Rounds, according to her publicist.
“I can confirm that Rosie and her wife Michelle split in November. Rosie has teens and an infant at home that need her attention,” Rosie O’Donnell’s representative Cindi Berger said in a statement.
“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.”
The View has been in a state of turmoil since last May when founding anchor Barbara Walters signed off of the roundtable 11 a.m. talker and Jenny McCarthy and Sherri Shepherd also left the panel. Rosie O’Donnell was recruited back to the show, which she co-hosted between 2006 and 2007 with much turmoil behind the scenes, along with newcomers Rosie Perez and Nicolle Wallace. Whoopi Goldberg, the show’s moderator and only returning member of the panel this season, is said to have butted heads with Rosie O’Donnell behind the scenes, as well as on-air.
Rosie O’Donnell had been struggling with the stress related to her divorce as well as the pressure on The View set, sources close to the situation said. The show’s lineup opened strongly in the ratings in September but viewership quickly tailed off.
