'View' Divas React To Star Jones' Exit

Barbara Walters Says She Feels 'Betrayed' By Surprise Announcement

(AP)  Reynolds' spokesman, Brad Zeifman, said the announcement had always been planned for this week. Because of all the speculation, Reynolds was compelled to tell viewers, he said.

He said he finds the notion that viewers were turned off by talk of her wedding "surprising," given that some of the top-rated shows in 2004 were related to her wedding and engagement. Reynolds' recent book in which she discussed her weight loss was a best-seller, he said.

Walters said Reynolds had known for several months that she would not be coming back, before Vieira's announcement in April that she was leaving.

"I would have loved for Star to have left and not said 'I was fired,' and not make it look like the program was somehow being cruel to her," she said.

O'Donnell's hiring had nothing to do with the decision, she said. That April announcement had led to widespread speculation over whether O'Donnell and Reynolds could co-exist. O'Donnell had made several caustic remarks about Reynolds, saying that it was dishonest for her to talk about losing more than 100 pounds through diet and exercise without talking about gastric bypass surgery.

On the show Tuesday, Reynolds told the audience that "The View" had decided to move in a new direction.

"I'm not sure what the future holds," she said. "But I'm absolutely sure who holds the future."

Comic Joy Behar looked like she was shocked.

"Who am I going to fight with?" Behar said.

Reynolds replied: "Something tells me you will have somebody to fight with."