EXCLUSIVE: Rosie O'Donnell on Why She Quit 'The View': 'Something Had to Give'

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Rosie O'Donnell is leaving The View
to concentrate on her family after splitting with her wife, and on Saturday she spoke exclusively to ET about the decision.

The 52-year-old told ET, "Stress is a major contributing factor to heart disease and heart attacks. You can't really minimize it. I'm having a lot of stressful situations in my family life at the moment and having stressful situations in my work environment, so something had to give. The most easy way to accomplish the lessening of the stress is to not go to work for right now."

NEWS: Rosie O'Donnell Is Leaving 'The View'

Despite rumors that The View had been plagued by infighting among the multiple hosts and producers, O'Donnell told ET that her decision was not driven by any on-set conflict. “No," she said. "This is definitely about my heart. It's about [the] company of Disney being amazing… When I sat down with them and said, 'Here is the deal, this is what's been going on with me personally and professionally,' they were great… It's not about anybody else. It never was and it never will be. Everybody wants a show to work and for it to succeed. But [what] you want mostly is to take care of your health."

On Friday, her rep confirmed the news that O'Donnell and her wife of three years, Michelle Rounds, had split in November.

WATCH: The Ladies of 'The Talk' React to 'The View' Casting News

"Rosie has teens and an infant at home that need her attention," her rep 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."

In the summer of 2012, O'Donnell had a near-fatal heart attack. At the time, she described it as a wake-up call and said she had missed the warning signs. Her new HBO doc A Heartfelt Stand Up premiered on Saturday at the Athena Film Festival in New York. "[You] can't produce a documentary telling people here's the way to be healthy and then ignore them," she told ET.

ABC has yet to announce who will fill her seat on The View. O'Donnell will still appear on a five-episode arc of ABC Family's drama The Fosters.

On Sunday, Rosie sent out two tweets following news of her departure from the daytime talk show. Quoting Amma, she wrote: "Many of the problems that arise in life are due to our having said 'yes' in situations where we should have said 'no.'"


 Are you surprised Rosie is leaving The View?