Rosie O’Donnell appears on Watch What Happens with Andy Cohen. (YouTube/ Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen)
Lesbian talk show icon Rosie O’Donnell has described a very “weird thing” with Ellen DeGeneres that she has never been able to get over.
O’Donnell is credited with paving the way for DeGeneres, whose talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show recently ended after 19 seasons from 2003 to 2022.
The Rosie O’Donnell Show It started in 1996, but in 2002, O’Donnell came out as lesbian during a speech at a charity event where she announced, “I’m a dyke!”
“I don’t know why people are so worried about gay people,” she said. “People are confused, they’re shocked, like it’s a big revelation for somebody.” After just two months, her talk show was canceled.
However, five years later, when DeGeneres’ show started, something very “weird” happened.
Appearance on Watch What’s On Live with Andy Cohen this week, host Andy Cohen asked why O’Donnell had never been a guest The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
She explained: “We had a little weird thing.
“After my show went off the air and hers went on the air, Larry King was on Ellen and he said, ‘What happened to Rosie O’Donnell?’ Her show went down the tubes. She came out as a lesbian and disappeared!”
“And Ellen said, and I quote, ‘I don’t know Rosie. We are not friends.”
She continued: “I was in bed with Kelly and I was like, ‘Did I just hear that or was that a hallucination?’
“It hurt my feelings as a child and I never got over it.”
O’Donnell added that she was asked to appear on the show until the end, but when the staff refused to take anyone with her, she decided against it.
She added: “I wish her all the best in her life and for her to be well, that’s it.”
Rosie O’Donnell says she never got over ‘weird thing’ with Ellen DeGeneres: ‘It hurt my feelings’
