Geraldo Rivera is opening up about his recent departure from Fox News and how a “toxic relationship” with another host on The Five played a role in his firing.
Last month, it was announced that Rivera would be leaving the afternoon panel show. But the following week, he took to Twitter to reveal that he actually quit his job at Fox News after being “fired” from The Five.
During Thursday’s appearance on The View, Rivera didn’t identify who he “had a toxic relationship” with, but when asked if he felt that it was unfair that personal issues with a colleague on the show led to his exit, he responded, “Sure.”
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“I also thought it was very unfair that I was not judged objectively in our disputes, but rather that he was always favored,” he explained. “I was the one…suspended three times. My appearances, I had two, three appearances scheduled weekly, then bi-weekly, then monthly, then they kind of disappeared, they were canceled in the last day right before I was supposed to go on. So, I was really ticked off.”
When prompted by The View co-host Joy Behar, Rivera did proceed to confirm that he was referring to a male castmember on The Five and not Jeanine Pirro, adding, “I love Jeanine.”
The Fox News afternoon panel show featured a rotating cast of co-hosts from across Fox’s lineup, including Pirro, Jesse Watters, Dana Perino and Greg Gutfeld. Rivera would make appearances in the rotation as a liberal co-host.
But in the end, he said, “Everything came to everything. Now I’m not mad at anybody. Now I’m a free person.”
Earlier during his conversation on The View, Rivera also detailed how he ultimately ended up at his decision to leave the network as a whole.
“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 can do.'” he recalled. “I had a year and a half left on my contract. And I said, ‘Well, stuff it, if you fired me from the No. 1 show, then I’m going to quit.’ And that’s basically what happened.”
He continued, “In the interim, in the days that led up to my last day of work, they were so kind to me… They were so nice, remembering all the things we did together over the 20-odd years.”
When asked why they didn’t just build him another show, Rivera added, “They could have, I guess,” but that he feels like his “ideology does not fit Fox” anymore.
Rivera previously told the Associated Press that there was friction in front of and behind the cameras on the Fox News panel show.
“There has been a growing tension that goes beyond editorial differences and personal annoyances and gripes,” he told the outlet in June. “It’s not worth it to me.”
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Fox News for comment.
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