Geraldo Rivera made his first TV interview appearance since exiting Fox News on Thursday, stopping by “The View” to discuss what went down. In doing so, he revealed that he had “a very toxic relationship” with one of his male cohosts on “The Five.”
Rivera deliberately didn’t name names, though, of course, there are only two other male hosts of the Fox News talk show: Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld. Back in June, the day after Rivera announced his exit, host Alyssa Farah Griffin speculated that those tensions might be with Gutfeld, because Gutfeld would often “come after [Rivera] really personally.”
Host Sara Haines asked if that toxicity specifically came because “things got personal,” and Rivera admitted yes.
“Sure, sure. And also, I thought that it was very unfair that I was not judged objectively in our disputes, but rather he was always favored,” Rivera said, giving up the gender of the unnamed cohost. “And I was the one — I was suspended, you know, three times. I had two, three appearances scheduled weekly, then biweekly, then monthly, then they kind of disappeared.”
Rivera also detailed the process of his exit on a broader level, explaining how his exit was both forced and voluntary at the same time.
“So I got a call from two of the female executives, and they said, ‘You’re off “The Five,” but there are plenty of other things you could do,’” he recounted. “I had a year and a half left on my contract. And I said, ‘Well, stop it. If you fire me from the No. 1 show, then I’m going to quit.’ And that’s basically what happened.”
You can watch the full conversation from “The View” in the video above.
