Rosie O’Donnell says she and Ellen DeGeneres ‘never resolved’ issues

Rosie O’Donnell may not be in contact with Ellen DeGeneres, but she still wishes her well.

O’Donnell recently got candid about her strained relationship with her fellow comedian, sharing that while they aren’t exactly close, she holds  no “malice” towards the former talk show host.

“I don’t want to fight against another gay woman,” O’Donnell told Us Weekly. “It’s not like we’re tenaciously opposed to each other. We’re just very different people.”

She continued, “We have had some stuff in the past that we never resolved. And not in any way as, as partners or lovers or anything like that, just as friends and comedians, but I wish her the best. I seriously do. I think that there’s enough room in the world for all of the gay comedians.”

O’Donnell, who left the United States for Ireland ahead of Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration, argued that it’s especially important for those in the LGBTQIA+ community to “stick together” in America’s current political climate because “gay people are the next group to be threatened.”

She added, “The way they attack trans people is absolutely terrifying. If people don’t understand that they’re a vital part of the LBGTQIA+ community, that’s tragic because we protect our own, especially the most vulnerable.”

O’Donnell also addressed the news that DeGeneres and her wife, Portia de Rossi, left the U.S. just like her, relocating to the English countryside after the 2024 election.

“I’ve never really known Ellen to say anything political in her life, so I was surprised to read that she left because of President Trump,” she said. “Like, that shocked me, actually. I’ve been a political person my whole life, not better or worse, it’s just a different way to be in the world. I was very clear about the reason why I was leaving, and I don’t think it came as a surprise to anyone.”

O’Donnell, who hasn’t reconnected with DeGeneres since they both left the U.S., added, “We’re not really in each other’s worlds, and it’s been kind of awkward but you know what? I wish her the best. I wish that she has peace and love in her life and that she is OK.”

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O’Donnell has previously spoken about the tension between her and DeGeneres revealing in 2022 that she never appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show because she “never really got over” a comment that DeGeneres made early in her career.

“We had a little bit of a weird thing,” O’Donnell explained at the time. “And after my show went off the air and hers was coming on the air, Larry King was on Ellen’s show and he said, ‘Whatever happened to Rosie O’Donnell? Her show went down the tubes! She came out as a lesbian and disappeared!'” 

She continued, “And Ellen said, and I’m quoting, ‘I don’t know Rosie. We’re not friends.'”

O’Donnell said that comment shocked her, prompting her to turn to her then-partner and say, “‘Did I just hear that or was that a hallucination?'”

She added, “It hurt my feelings like a baby, and I never really got over it.”