Rosie O’Donnell and Ellen DeGeneres have some hats to bury. Image Source: Complex
Rosie O’Donnell and Ellen DeGeneres have some hats to bury.
During a recent appearance on Andy Cohen’s "Watch What Happens Live", Rosie O’Donnell was asked why she had never appeared on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," to which she said that she and Ellen DeGeneres had a little bit of a weird thing, so to avoid that she never appeared on her talk show.
Before Ellen DeGeneres publicly came out as gay on her sitcom "Ellen," Rosie O'Donnell said that Ellen DeGeneres announced that her character was going to come out as "Lebanese" when she appeared on her talk program "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" in 1996. Years before she came out in the open, Rosie O'Donnell implied that she, too, belonged to the LGBTQ+ group.
Rosie O’Donnell claimed that after her show ended and Ellen's show was about to air during that time, Larry King had asked Ellen DeGeneres if anything had happened to Rosie O’Donnell, including that her program had failed, she had come out as lesbian, and she had vanished.
Rosie O’Donnell during her conversation with Andy revealed that Ellen DeGeneres quoted at the time that she did not know Rosie and mentioned that they were not friends. Rosie O'Donnell recalled asking her then-partner, Kelli Carpenter, whether she had heard that or if it had been a hallucination aural voice, but it had actually happened when they were together. According to Rosie O'Donnell, Ellen DeGeneres' remarks caused her great emotional distress, and she never fully recovered.
A transcript from the "Larry King Live" episode from 2004 shows that Ellen DeGeneres did admit she knew Rosie O’Donnell and that she had appeared on her program. Ellen said that she does not know Rosie that well. Ellen DeGeneres was asked if she had ever been on Rosie O'Donnell's show to which she said that yes, she meant that she has spoken to her, but they are not friends.
The comedian said that she was in fact asked to appear on Ellen DeGeneres' talk show towards the end of the show in order to promote her comedy series "SMILF," but after her request to have someone join her on the show was turned down by the producers, she decided not to go. Rosie said that she only wanted someone to join her so that the things between her and Ellen could be less awkward while filming the episode and the interview, but sadly it never happened.
Rosie O’Donnell also shared with Andy Cohen that she wishes Ellen DeGeneres all the good things in her life and prays for her health but the truth remains the same that she never got over the remarks by someone she considered a friend. Ellen DeGeneres has not yet commented on the remarks by Rosie.
In an episode of the show that aired in April, Ellen DeGeneres talked about the 25th anniversary of her coming-out episode on her former ABC sitcom "Ellen." She asserted that when she came out, people warned her that it would kill her career, and they were correct since she was jobless for the three years that followed. She said, nevertheless, that you should consider her current position. It demonstrates how crucial it is for people to be true to themselves and how crucial it is to accept others for who they truly are, she continued. When Ellen was a child, she claimed that there weren't many people who looked like her on television.
After 19 seasons and considerable controversy involving Ellen and her staff, The Ellen DeGeneres Show ended earlier this year. The talk show was described as a "toxic workplace" by several employees, so Ellen apologized to her crew and addressed the issue on air.
After the accusations of Ellen's workplace being toxic started to spread, Rosie noted on the Busy Philipps podcast Busy Philipps Is Doing Her Best in August 2020 that one cannot fake their essence. She added that she feels sorry for Ellen and said that even when she hears the stories and she understands, you know, she has compassion for her. She continued that she believes she exhibits some social awkwardness which she believes that she understands because she has known her for such a long time, they have their unique history.
