Rosie O’Donnell ‘never got over’ the ‘painful’ end of her friendship with Ellen DeGeneres

Rosie O’Donnell is reflecting on the “painful” end of her friendship with fellow lesbian comedian, Ellen DeGeneres.

During a conversation on Mamamia’s No Filter podcast on 7 September, the Now and Then actress recalled hearing DeGeneres stating that the pair were “not really friends” during an appearance on Larry King Live in 2004.

O’Donnell explained that the comment came as a shock as the pair had known each other “for 30 years”, and O’Donnell had supported her friend when she came out as a lesbian in 1997.

Yet she suggested that the support wasn’t quite reciprocated.

“That was like one of the most painful things that ever happened to me in show business, in my life. I couldn’t believe it,” she said of DeGeneres’ comments about their relationship.

She said that the incident was “so upsetting” that she had T-shirts made for her staff, emblazoned with the slogan: “I don’t know Rosie, we’re not friends.”

“It was very painful and I never sort of got over it,” O’Donnell admitted, explaining that she didn’t know where the remarks had come from, as she had known DeGeneres for three decades, and has photos of the former talk show host holding her newborn babies.

While DeGeneres was a guest on O’Donnell’s talk show The Rosie O’Donnell Show in 1996, O’Donnell explained that she wasn’t invited onto The Ellen DeGeneres Show until the show’s final season, season 19.

“I did think that she was, all of a sudden, in the position I was in. Where she was starting a show, and wanting it to be successful, and get the money and the accolades that came with it,” O’Donnell said of her former friend, referencing the fact that DeGeneres’ show started the year after O’Donnell’s ended.

“And instead of deciding to stand next to me and hold my hand, which is what I did to her, she did the opposite. I couldn’t believe it,” she continued.

O’Donnell has spoken on numerous occasions about the “weird thing” between her and DeGeneres, and the And Just Like That… actress explained that her former friend has asked why she continues to dredge their relationship up.

“I’m now 63 and she’s a few years older than me. I don’t wish her any ill will. But I never could kind of get past it,” she revealed. “‘It was profound for me. It was a profound moment.

“I think in her mind, she thinks I keep rehashing it for pleasure,” she added. “I don’t rehash it for pleasure… I rehash it because our careers have taken sort of parallel, interwoven paths.”

In July, Ellen DeGeneres appeared to extend an olive branch to Rosie O’Donnell, congratulating her via Instagram on her standing up for herself against Donald Trump.

O’Donnell and Trump have been engaged in a public feud since 2006 and in January, following his presidential inauguration, O’Donnell fled to Ireland and applied for Irish citizenship.

In July, Trump threatened to take away O’Donnell’s American citizenship, prompting the comedian to issue a powerful, lengthy response.

“You’re rattled again? 18 years later and I still live rent free in that collapsing brain of yours,” she wrote. “I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”

In response, DeGeneres – who also left America for a life in the UK – wrote: “Good for you @Rosie.”

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Elsewhere during her chat on the No Filter podcast, O’Donnell explained that her feud with Trump has become so serious that her security advised her not to return to the US for her daughter’s recent graduation.

“My daughter graduated college and I didn’t go back because the security people said to me they didn’t think it was wise,” she revealed.

“Because I think Trump will use me to rile his base.”

Last week, Trump once again said that he was “giving serious thought” to revoking O’Donnell’s citizenship, despite the fact he does not have the power to remove the citizenship of someone born in America.

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