Rosie O’Donnell calls Kelly Ripa ‘mean’ for allegedly ‘gay bashing’ Clay Aiken during 2006 incident

Rosie O’Donnell is dishing details about in infamous incident between Kelly Ripa and Clay Aiken all the way back in 2006.

The revelation came to light in an excerpt from Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of The View Opens a New Window, exclusively obtained by Us Weekly.

O’Donnell famously accused the AM hostess of making a ‘homophobic remark’ about the American Idol alum when Aiken stepped in to guest host Live With Regis And Kelly.

Behind the incident: Rosie O’Donnell is explaining the story behind why she called out Kelly Ripa for making ‘homophobic remarks’ towards Clay Aiken back in 2006

She made her feelings for Kelly clear, telling the author: ‘I think Kelly Ripa is mean and she doesn’t like me, and she has never wanted to discuss what happened. She wanted to have this weird feud.’ 

She was referring to the time when Ripa told Aiken: ‘I don’t know where that’s been, honey!’ after the gay singer put his hand over her mouth in jest on the show over a decade ago.

While most took the comments as simple banter, O’Donnell didn’t see things the same way and accused Ripa of being ‘homophobic.’

‘If that was a straight man, if that was a cute man, if that was a guy that she didn’t question his sexuality, she would’ve said a different thing,’ Rosie explained the next day during an episode of The View.

Opening up about the incident in writer Ramin Setoodeh’s new tell-all, the SMILF actress said she was being protective of Aiken, who at the time was not out but also widely-speculated to be gay.

O’Donnell famously accused the AM hostess of making a ‘homophobic remark’ about the American Idol alum (above in 2012) when Aiken stepped in to guest host Live With Regis And Kelly

The incident: She was referring to the time when Ripa told Aiken ‘I don’t know where that’s been, honey!’ after the singer put his hand over her mouth in jest

Rosie said that Clay came to her looking for support ahead of his guest-hosting stint, worried he would be asked about his sexual orientation on the show.

‘He had come into my dressing room, crying about whether or not to come out. And I sat down with him and I talked to him. He was inching his way out in the way so many born-again Southern Christians have to. I hugged him. Not only do I feel the twenty-years-older mother thing, I feel the twenty-years-old younger-gay thing.’

‘So I had just held a crying boy and then watched him be gay bashed by Kelly Ripa,’ Rosie said.

After the incident, Rosie recalls Clay coming to her with gratitude, allegedly admitting: ‘I didn’t know how to come out, so you just did it.’

Aiken, however, remembered things slightly differently, explaining how he was devastated by how Rosie ostensibly ‘outed’ him with her comments.

A different perspective: Aiken, however, remembered things slightly differently, explaining how he was shocked by how Rosie ostensibly ‘outed’ him with her comments. Above in 2018

‘I have a horrible memory, but I know exactly how this s–t went down,’ he told author Setoodeh.

‘I didn’t see it the same way that she did,’ he continued. ‘The truth is she outed me in a way, because I had not been out yet. When she said the words, “If that was a straight man,” she was confirming that she knew that I wasn’t. 

‘That was the worst day of my life,’ he recalled. ‘I don’t think I’d had a moment more devastating to me. I remember feeling like shit that day and totally defeated. But I definitely wasn’t mad at her.’

Rosie’s been making waves with a number of controversial remarks from the forthcoming book.

In addition to the Aiken incident she opened up about her feud with castmate Whoopi Goldberg, as well as her ‘crush’ on Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

Dishing: In addition to the Aiken incident she opened up about her feud with castmate Whoopi Goldberg, as well as her ‘crush’ on Elisabeth Hasselbeck, above in 2015