“Instead of deciding to stand next to me and hold my hand…she did the opposite,” she said of DeGeneres’ dismissal of her during a live interview in 2004
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Rosie O’Donnell (left); Ellen DeGeneres.Credit : Christopher Polk/Variety via Getty; NINA PROMMER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Rosie O’Donnell is reflecting on the breakdown of her friendship with Ellen DeGeneres.
On the Sept. 7 episode of Mamamia’s No Filter podcast, O’Donnell, 63, recalled how her friendship with DeGeneres, 67, ended following a 2004 interview on Larry King Live, during which the former TV show host said she was not friends with O’Donnell.
According to the Now and Then actress, DeGeneres was “in the [same] position” O’Donnell had been in seven years prior, when DeGeneres came out as gay on her sitcom in 1997.
“Instead of deciding to stand next to me and hold my hand, which is what I did to her, she did the opposite,” O’Donnell said, referring to her support of DeGeneres after she came out.
“That was, like, one of the most painful things that ever happened to me, in show business, in my life,” the comedian said of DeGeneres’ comment.
“I couldn’t believe it,” she continued. “I have photos of her holding my newborn babies. I knew her for 30 years.”
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Ellen DeGeneres (left) and Rosie O’Donnell.Mathew Imaging/FilmMagic
O’Donnell said that she “would have apologized” to DeGeneres, as she claimed, “I think in her mind, she thinks I keep rehashing it for pleasure.”
“I don’t rehash it for pleasure,” she said of the fallout.
“I rehash it because our careers have taken sort of parallel, interwoven paths.”
In 2022, O’Donnell recalled the same story during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, and that interview ended up making its way back to DeGeneres.
The following year, O’Donnell told The Hollywood Reporter that her former friend had reached out to her to apologize.
“She texted me a few weeks ago checking in, seeing how I’m doing, and I asked her how she’s surviving not being on TV. It’s a big transition,” O’Donnell said.
“I guess she saw me talk about it on Andy Cohen’s show,” she said of DeGeneres.
“She wrote, ‘I’m really sorry, and I don’t remember that.’”
O’Donnell, in contrast, told the outlet she “remembered it so well,” so much so that she “had T-shirts printed and I gave them to my staff that said ‘I don’t know Rosie. We’re not friends,’” at the time.
“I knew her for so many years,” she said of DeGeneres.
“It just felt like, I don’t trust this person to be in my world.”
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Rosie O’Donnell attends the opening night performance of ‘A Transparent Musical’ on May 31, 2023.Emma McIntyre/Getty Images
Following O’Donnell’s move to Ireland earlier this year, her fallout from DeGeneres again became a topic of interest, given DeGeneres relocated to the U.K. with her wife, Portia de Rossi, last year.
When President Donald Trump threatened to revoke O’Donnell’s U.S. citizenship and called her a “threat to humanity” — she’s been vocal about how her move was motivated by a desire to avoid his administration — DeGeneres spoke up.
“Good for you,” the former Ellen host wrote in an Instagram post, as she shared both Trump’s social media post about O’Donnell and the comedian’s response, which was posted on Instagram in July.
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