Rosie O'Donnell is still reeling from the abrupt end of her friendship with Ellen DeGeneres, 21 years after Ellen brutally laid bare how she really felt about the actress on live TV. During an appearance on Mamamia's No Filter podcast, Rosie recalled how Ellen denied knowing her on Larry King Live in 2004, telling the talk show host they "weren't friends," despite the pair having a 30-year friendship, according to Rosie. The 63-year-old Now and Then star recalled how she was watching Ellen's interview in bed with her then-wife, Kelli Carpenter, when Ellen dropped the "painful" bombshell that ended their friendship.
"That was like one of the most painful things that ever happened to me in show business in my life," she said. "I couldn't believe it. I have photos of her holding my newborn babies. I knew her for 30 years." Rosie was so affected by Ellen's denial that she "had T-shirts printed and I gave them to my staff that said 'I don't know Rosie. We're not friends.'"
According to Rosie, Ellen was "in the [same] position" she had been in seven years earlier when Ellen came out as gay on her sitcom in 1997. "Instead of deciding to stand next to me and hold my hand, which is what I did to her, she did the opposite," Rosie said, referring to her support of Ellen after she shared her sexuality.
Rosie shared the same story in 2022 when she appeared on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, telling him Ellen's dismissal "hurt my feelings like a baby. And I never really got over it," and that interview made its way back to Ellen. "I think in her mind, she thinks I keep rehashing it for pleasure," Rosie said of their fallout. "I don't rehash it for pleasure. I rehash it because our careers have taken sort of parallel, interwoven paths."
In 2023, Rosie revealed that Ellen had finally reached out to her to apologize, but she wasn't quite ready to forgive and forget. "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," Rosie told The Hollywood Reporter.
"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."
Rosie added: "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."