Rosie O’Donnell was on “The Today Show” this morning promoting her new variety show, “Rosie Live,” which premieres Wednesday night at 8pm on NBC. She was inevitably asked about the rekindled feud with Barbara Walters, in which Walters said she resented O’Donnell’s recent statement that there was no camaraderie backstage at The View and suggested that O’Donnell mentioned it for publicity. Walters didn’t refer to O’Donnell by name when she criticized her on air and just said it was someone who had left the show, who she called “lady” in a harsh tone.

According to O’Donnell, her comments about the View just kind of slipped out.

“When you do like 60 interviews in an hour, and every reporter asks you about the View… I do the best that I can. I tell the truth as much as I can with caring about other people’s feelings. You don’t hear the question that the reporter posed. All you hear is the answer…

“‘Are the women really friends? Do you hang out together?’…

“I’m not saying they hate each other, but they’re not hanging out on the weekend.”

Rosie said she admires Barbara and feels bad that she hurt her. She called her a mother figure. She said she doesn’t regret talking about it because “it’s part of my life experience.”

After the big argument with Elisabeth, relationships changed
According to Rosie the day of the big split screen blow out with Elisabeth Hasselbeck in May, 2007 really changed the dynamic on the show. She said “if you watch back there was a lot of camaraderie between us all before that day.”

She said she never meant to hurt anyone and that “I did the best I could for 9 months [on The View] and when it was time to go I left.”

Rosie said she committed to “The View” for one year, and that after the Donald Trump feud she knew she wasn’t going to sign another contract, and said Walters was aware of that. She had about 2-3 more weeks left on the show when she had the big argument with Hasselbeck.

Rosie thinks the split screen argument was planned
Rosie suggested that the producers were trying to milk her argument with Elisabeth for all it was worth:

“The split screen day was tough for me. You know the director, Mark Gentile, takes a long time to just get a single of anything. Do you think that was not planned? Have they ever used a split screen before? Or since?”

Sent Barbara Walters an e-mail saying she never called her a liar
Rosie said she sent Barbara Walters an e-mail before the article in which she said there was no camaraderie backstage was published in the LA Times. She told her she loved her and wanted to make it clear that she never called her a liar about the show. Walters never responded to her other than to call her out on air. Rosie said she loved her, but that love and relationships are complicated.

Update: Here are two promos sent to us by NBC for Rosie’s new show, “Rosie Live”. It looks fun.

Rosie takes questions from an audience of press who doesn’t know who she is: