Rosie O’Donnell is once again revisiting her rocky history with Ellen DeGeneres. On the No Filter podcast this week, Rosie reflected on their friendship breakdown, pointing back to DeGeneres' infamous 2004 Larry King Live moment when she said she and Rosie weren’t friends.
For O’Donnell, the pain seems to come not just from the comment itself, but from the history they shared. “Instead of deciding to stand next to me and hold my hand, which is what I did to her [when she came out], she did the opposite,” she said.
“That was, like, one of the most painful things that ever happened to me, in show business, in my life,” O’Donnell added. “I couldn’t believe it. I have photos of her holding my newborn babies. I knew her for 30 years.”
What makes it even more layered is that DeGeneres actually defended O’Donnell earlier this year during her escalating feud with Donald Trump. In July, she shared screenshots of Trump's tweet threatening to "take away her citizenship" and O'Donnell's response, writing, "Good for you @Rosie."
Still, the wounds clearly linger. As O’Donnell explains, “I don’t rehash it for pleasure. I rehash it because our careers have taken sort of parallel, interwoven paths.”
A lingering pain
O’Donnell has opened up about this hurt before, most recently in 2022 on Watch What Happens Live, where she admitted she was still stung by DeGeneres's comment.
She also shared insight into what their relationship was like before she claimed they weren't friends. “I know her mother. I could identify her brother without her in the room,” she said. “I knew her for so many years. It just felt like I don’t trust this person to be in my world.”
The comedian also pointed out that DeGeneres used the same staff from her show, Jim Paratore, and Andy Lassner. “So that was odd. It was very similar to my show.” She said she asked to go on DeGeneres’ show to promote something, and she said no. “I remember going, ‘Seriously?’ After she said no that one time, whenever they would ask [me to appear] on the show, I would say no.”
After that interview, Degeneres actually reached out and apologized, texting O’Donnell, “I’m really sorry, and I don’t remember that.”
O’Donnell responded, even checking in on how DeGeneres was handling life after TV, but also admitted, “We’ve had our weirdness in our relationship. I don’t know if it’s jealousy, competition, or the fact that she said a mean thing about me once that really hurt my feelings.”
So, while DeGeneres may have sent that apology and defended her publicly, it looks like this friendship remains one that never quite patched itself back together.