Ellen DeGeneres and Rosie O’Donnell have both shocked their fans over the past few months by fleeing America and moving to the United Kingdom. Indeed, each of them fled the U.S. after November’s presidential election. DeGeneres settled in England, while O’Donnell moved to Ireland.
Despite them both fleeing the country, there’s no love lost between DeGeneres and O’Donnell these days. This was shown once again this week, when O’Donnell spoke out to blast DeGeneres in a new interview.
O’Donnell Rips Into DeGeneres
While appearing on the Mamacita podcast “No Filter,” O’Donnell, 63, revealed how her friendship with DeGeneres, 67, ended over 20 years ago. According to O’Donnell, it was comments that DeGeneres made during a 2004 appearance on Larry King Live that ultimately drove them apart.
During the interview, host Larry King asked DeGeneres about the end of The Rosie O’Donnell Show, which ran from 1996 to 2002. O’Donnell was watching the interview with her then-wife Kelli Carpenter, and she was shocked by what DeGeneres had to say.
“He asked her, ‘Whatever happened to Rosie O’Donnell? Her show went down the tubes,’” O’Donnell said, mimicking the voice of King, who died in 2021. “And Ellen said, ‘I don’t know Rosie. We’re not friends.’”
“That was, like, one of the most painful things that ever happened to me, in show business, in my life,” O’Donnell said of DeGeneres’ response.
“I couldn’t believe it,” she continued. “I have photos of her holding my newborn babies, I knew her for 30 years.”
O’Donnell went on to say that this was “so upsetting” that she had custom T-shirts made emblazoned with DeGeneres’ quotes, which she “gave to my staff.” These shirts reportedly read “I don’t know Rosie. We’re not friends.”
“It was very painful and, you know, we’ve never really gotten over it,” O’Donnell admitted.
According to O’Donnell, she “would have apologized” to DeGeneres if she had done this to her.
“I think in her mind, she thinks I keep rehashing it for pleasure,” O’Donnell concluded of the fallout. “I don’t rehash it for pleasure, I rehash it because our careers have taken sort of parallel, interwoven paths.”
DeGeneres Tried To Apologize
In 2022, O’Donnell told this same story during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. The next year, O’Donnell revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that DeGeneres had reached out to her to apologize.
“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,” O’Donnell said at the time. “It’s a big transition.”
“I guess she saw me talk about it on Andy Cohen’s show,” O’Donnell said of DeGeneres. “She wrote, ‘I’m really sorry, and I don’t remember that.’”
Despite this, it seems that O’Donnell didn’t accept her apology. Instead, she told the publication that she “remembered it so well.”
“I knew her for so many years,” O’Donnell said of DeGeneres. “It just felt like, I don’t trust this person to be in my world.”
DeGeneres Attempts To Support O’Donnell
Earlier this year, DeGeneres attempted to publicly support O’Donnell after she fled America because of President Trump.
“Good for you,” DeGeneres wrote on Instagram alongside a screenshot of Trump threatening to revoke O’Donnell’s citizenship. He even described her as being a “threat to humanity.”
Judging by O’Donnell’s latest interview, however, DeGeneres still hasn’t forgiven her.
It’s somewhat surprising that DeGeneres and O’Donnell have such bad blood, given how much they have in common. Indeed, they are both prominent lesbian comediennes. They are also each wealthy liberal elites who felt the need to flee our great country just because they don’t like the current occupant of the White House.
In the end, America is better off without DeGeneres and O’Donnell in it. They can squabble all that they want to, but they’re the U.K.’s problem now!