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Rosie O'Donnell has a “weird relationship” with Ellen DeGeneres.
The 61-year-old star fronted her own daytime chat show from 1996 until 2002 and – following a brief period where she was replaced by ‘Sabrina, the Teenage Witch' actress Caroline Rhea – her slot was ultimately taken by fellow comedienne Ellen, 65, who fronted ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show' between 2003 and 2022 but Rosie has recalled feeling as if there was no room to have two lesbian comics on screen at the time.
She told The Hollywood Reporter: “It was a good relationship. We were friends. We supported each other. Which is why when she came on my show, I said, “Let me not have you standing there by yourself. Let's get a joke in there.” And we sat down and came up with that, ‘Oh my God, I love Casey Kasem. Maybe I'm Lebanese.' It became a big thing.
“Then the episode aired, Time ran its ‘Yep, I'm Gay' cover and everybody was asking me, “What do you think about Ellen?” It became a strange, ‘There can't be two lesbians in this town,' kind of a thing. “Then we each had success and went our separate ways.”
Rosie went on to add that even though Ellen infamously said on TV that the pair of them were “not friends”, they are actually still in touch and Ellen has even apologised for her remarks.
“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. But 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.
“She wrote, ‘I'm really sorry and I don't remember that.' I guess she saw me talk about it on Andy Cohen's show. I remembered it so well, I had T-shirts printed and I gave them to my staff that said “I don't know Rosie. We're not friends.” I have a picture of her holding [my then-infant son] Parker. I know her mother. I could identify her brother without her in the room. I knew her for so many years. It just felt like I don't trust this person to be in my world.”
