Rosie O'Donnell's Teen Daughter, Chelsea, Has Been Found
Updated at 3:38 p.m. PT: Rosie O'Donnell announced on Twitter that her daughter Chelsea has been found.
O'Donnell's rep also released the following statement: "Rosie wants to thank everyone for their help, especially the South Nyack, NY and Barneget Light, NJ police departments. Her daughter Chelsea O’Donnell has been located by the police and is safe in their custody."
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Rosie O'Donnell is having a family emergency. Her 17-year-old daughter, Chelsea, is missing.
The former The View co-host shared the news on her website on Tuesday. The girl, who stopped taking her medication, went missing in Nyack, New York — which is just north of Manhattan — one week ago. Police have been searching the Rockland County area for her since Sunday.
"She was last seen Tuesday, Aug. 11," said the message. "She was wearing a black sweatshirt hoodie, dark ripped blue jeans, women's gray Converse sneakers, and a black backpack. Chelsea has a large tattoo on her right side of a dream catcher with the word 'Breathe.'"
The message also noted, "Chelsea stopped taking her medicine and is in need of medical attention." While it is unclear what type of medication the teen is taking, a rep for the star tells Yahoo, "Chelsea, like millions of people, lives with mental illness. It has been a difficult road for Chelsea and her family and they just want her back safe."
A source close to the family told Entertainment Tonight that they don't suspect foul play. They think Chelsea ran away from home.
Anyone with information about Chelsea — who is traveling with her 6-month-old therapy dog, Bear — is asked to call authorities at 845-358-0206 or dial 911.
In March, Chelsea found herself the topic of a tabloid report when her birth mother, Deanna Micoley, gave an interview to the National Enquirer claiming Rosie "stole" her daughter. The woman claimed she had been drugged up on heroin by her ex-husband and was forced to give up their child. So, unbelievably, that was somehow Rosie's fault, the woman alleged in the sensational story. When the interview ran, a rep for O'Donnell told the magazine that Rosie was "unbearably proud" of Chelsea and "encouraged and supported Chelsea's desire to communicate with her birth mother." However, she found it "disappointing that Chelsea’s birth mother would go public with this personal story without ever having met Rosie."
Rosie stepped down from The View in February to concentrate on her family's well-being amid her split from her second wife, Michelle Rounds. The comedian is the mother of 5: Parker, 19; Chelsea; Blake, 15; Vivienne, 12; and Dakota, 2.
O'Donnell adopted Parker and Chelsea prior to meeting her first wife, Kelli Carpenter. The women adopted son Blake together and then Kelli gave birth to Vivienne. Dakota is from O'Donnell's marriage to Rounds.
After their split earlier this year, O'Donnell and Rounds got into a custody dispute over Dakota. This past spring, Rounds made accusations about her ex's parenting, including telling Entertainment Tonight, "Right now she has 24/7 nannies over there at Rosie's house," and, "I'm at my daughter's every beck and call. I give her mild discipline instead of like carte blanche, do whatever you want, which is more or less how Rosie likes to do things."
A rep for O'Donnell shot down those allegations, calling her bid for sole custody of the child, "an absurd and desperate attempt to use a child for her own gain."
O'Donnell has long owned property in Nyack. Soon after she married Rounds, the women moved to Saddle River, New Jersey, in 2013 to be closer to a special needs school that Blake, who has an auditory processing disorder, attended. However, in July, that property was put on the market and O'Donnell reportedly moved her family back to Nyack, where she has waterfront property on the Hudson River.