Geraldo Rivera is continuing to open up about his departure from Fox News after 23 years at the conservative network.
“I should have left a long time ago,” Rivera told Mediaite on this week’s episode of “The Interview” podcast. “But for various reasons, not the least of which was my own insecurity about where I would end up, I stuck around and I stayed too long at the dance.”
Rivera, 80, announced in June that he was quitting Fox News after being kicked off “The Five.”
“Over time I had a very toxic relationship, as I’ve described it, with one or more cast members,” he said of the panel show. “And it got to be, the friction was visible, very tense on the set.”
“And then at a certain point, two Fox executives … they called me and said that I was basically fired from ‘The Five,’” he added.
Though Rivera, a moderate Republican, didn’t name names, he routinely clashed with co-hosts on “The Five,” particularly Greg Gutfeld, over a range of subjects, including his criticisms of former President Donald Trump.
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He said executives offered him other projects at the network, but he wasn’t interested.
“I said, you know, losing the big job, I am not going to stick around. I quit. I want to leave the network. And [I was] surprised at how eager they were to comply with my wishes. They didn’t exactly chase me out the door,” he said.
He said things ended amicably overall, “so I’m not mad at anybody.”
In an interview on “The View” last month, Rivera also spoke of a “very toxic relationship” with a male panelist on “The Five,” but he wouldn’t name anyone.
Gutfeld and Jesse Watters were the other male full-time hosts during Rivera’s time on the program.
Watters went on to take over Tucker Carlson’s prime-time slot following the far-right host’s firing.
Rivera was sharply critical of Carlson both before and after leaving the network. He told Mediaite he was “nauseous over Tucker Carlson’s premise that Jan. 6 was an inside job” and “what he did was unforgivable.”