File this one under “stories you never expected to read in your lifetime.”

Variety reports on a forthcoming book that details, among other things, the crush Rosie O’Donnell says she developed on Elisabeth Hasselbeck in the middle of their volatile on-screen relationship when they both co-hosted ABC‘s “The View”:

To many viewers, it looked like O’Donnell and Hasselbeck were mortal enemies. But O’Donnell says that wasn’t the case. “I loved her,” O’Donnell says in the book.

[…]

Joy Behar speculated that O’Donnell had a crush on Hasselbeck, which O’Donnell confirms in the book. “I think there were underlying lesbian undertones on both parts,” O’Donnell says about her working relationship with Hasselbeck. O’Donnell backed up this idea with some dubious evidence. “I think this is something that will hurt her if you write it. She was the MVP of a Division 1 softball team for two years that won the finals. There are not many, in my life, girls with such athletic talent on sports teams that are traditionally male that aren’t at least a little bit gay.”

Although O’Donnell was attracted to Hasselbeck, she never wanted to act on it. “There was a little bit of a crush,” O’Donnell says in the book. “But not that I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to support, raise, elevate her, like she was the freshman star shortstop and I was the captain of the team.” O’Donnell changed sports metaphors from baseball to basketball. “I was going to Scottie Pippen her. If I was Jordan, I was going to give her and the ball and let her shoot. But it was in no way sexualized.”

So Rosie’s “evidence” that Hasselbeck might have been secretly a lesbian is the fact that she was into sports? Seriously? Straight sports-loving ladies across America (particularly those who are dating a man or those who, like Hasselbeck, are happily married to a man) will laugh their a**ses off when they read this.

And let’s say – for purposes of discussion – that Hasselbeck was a closeted lesbian? What purpose does it serve O’Donnell to try and “out” her in this manner? It’s because Rosie is, as usual, acting like that word that rhymes with “witch.” Again.

The timing of this Variety piece is interesting when you consider that Hasselbeck, who was let go from the show in 2013, will return tomorrow for a guest stint to talk about her new book Point of View: A Fresh Look at Work, Faith, and Freedom.

She wrote in the book that the show offered her her spot back over the summer, but she declined.

Oh well. At least now we know the real reason O’Donnell treated Hasselbeck with such disdain. She wanted her conservative co-host. Clearly, it wasn’t reciprocated.

Watch video of their infamous May 2007 on-air battle below:

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—Sister Toldjah is a former liberal and a 15+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on media bias, social issues, and the culture wars. Read her Red State archives here. Connect with her on Twitter.–