Six days after Rosie O'Donnell's rep announced that the 52-year-old comedian is leaving The View, the TV personality bid farewell to the ABC series during her final regular appearance on the show.
"I just want to say thank you to the cast and the crew and mostly to Barbara Walters who has always looked out for me in my life and career and is an amazing woman," she told the audience, gushing over the talk show's creator and former executive producer. "We had lunch yesterday. She sends her love."
O'Donnell returned to The View in September 2014, about seven years after her infamous fight with Elizabeth Hasselbeck, which ultimately led to her initial exit. Her departure was revealed on Friday, along with a simultaneous announcement that she and wife Michelle Rounds have split.
"I want to thank her for making this show and letting me be on it twice," Rosie continued while holding daughter Dakota in her arms. "We've had fun and I hope we're going to have more. I'll come back and do an occasional crafting segment because I have a hot glue gun and I will travel. Thank you. It's been real fun."
At the start of the show, Rosie's co-hosts, including Nicolle Wallace, Whoopi Goldberg and Rosie Perez all stood up for O'Donnell as the audience chanted her name.
"Enough, it's only an hour show. If that was every day I probably would've stayed," she joked, adding, "Thank you everybody that's very sweet. Thank you very much"
In addition to bidding farewell to The View, O'Donnell is also set to appear on The Dr. Oz Show on Friday, where she will discuss her exit from the long-running series.
"When I told them, I said 'I'm having way too much stress, my doctor has recommended that I not do a daily show any more' and they listened and they were kind and they said OK," she reveals. "I was surprised really because you don't know. All I know is this, I was having way too much stress and for somebody that had a near fatal heart attack, that's a very bad way to live. I did this documentary and I tried to make people learn, especially women, what causes a heart attack and how to survive it… but as my documentary on heart disease was about to air, I was getting sicker."
O'Donnell echoed those same sentiments on The View today when she said: "I got a lot of stress. I got some home stuff going on, I got some kid stuff going on. I got to turn down the stress in some area."
Asked by guest Kenan Thompson if she can "handle it and come back," the mother of five replied, "Maybe."