Rosie O’Donnell dropped by Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen Thursday, where the actress and former talk show host discussed the weird relationship or, lack of a relationship, she has with Ellen Degeneres.
Andy Cohen asked O’Donnell why she never made an appearance on The Ellen Degeneres Show during its 20-year run. O’Donnell admitted that they likely didn’t have her on as a guest because they “had a little bit of a weird thing.”
O’Donnell explained, “After my show went off the air, and hers was coming on the air, Larry King was on with Ellen and he said, ‘Whatever happened to Rosie O’Donnell? Her show went down the tubes. She came out as a lesbian and disappeared.’ And Ellen said, and I’m quoting, ‘I don’t know Rosie. We’re not friends.'”
Given the fact that Degeneres went on The Rosie O’Donnell Show in 1996, where she danced around the gossip regarding her sexuality by saying her character was going to come out as “Lebanese,” months before she came out as gay on her self-titled sitcom Ellen, O’Donnell was hurt that Degeneres later said she didn’t know her.
“I was in bed with Kelli and I went, ‘Did I just hear that or was that, like, a hallucination auditory voice?’ I’m like, no, and that’s what happened, and it hurt my feelings like a baby and I never really got over it,” O’Donnell shared.
O’Donnell did reveal that The Ellen Show did finally ask her to appear toward the end of the show’s run to promote her Showtime comedy series SMILF, but O’Donnell asked if she could bring a guest to make it “a little less awkward,” and they rejected her request so, ultimately, she passed. However, despite the awkwardness, she wishes Ellen all the best.
“I wish her all good things in her life and that she should be well. So there you go. But I never did it. I never did it,” concluded O’Donnell.
Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen airs Sundays-Thursdays on Bravo.
Watch O’Donnell saying ‘society has changed’ in the 30 years since ‘A League of Their Own’ didn’t address sexuality:
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