Why Rosie O'Donnell Hasn't Accepted Ellen DeGeneres's Apology: 'I Don't Trust This Person to Be in My World'
Ellen DeGeneres texted Rosie O'Donnell "a few weeks ago" and apologized for previously saying she didn't "know" the talk show host
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Rosie O’Donnell isn’t ready to forgive and forget.
The Emmy winner recently got an apology from Ellen DeGeneres, who said years ago on Larry King Live that they “weren’t friends” — but receiving a mea culpa doesn’t mean O’Donnell is looking to be buddies with her fellow former talk show host.
“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, 61, told The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s a big transition. 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.”
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“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,” O’Donnell said of DeGeneres, 65. “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.”
She 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.”
O’Donnell has previously addressed the comment by DeGeneres. In full, when asked “what happened” to O’Donnell’s talk show after she came out as a lesbian, DeGeneres responded, “I don't know Rosie. We're not friends.”
The comic later said on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, “It hurt my feelings like a baby. And I never really got over it."
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The Rosie O'Donnell Show aired from 1996 to 2002. DeGeneres appeared on the series to talk about her decision to come out in the entertainment industry. The interview took place ahead of the infamous “Puppy Episode” in which DeGeneres’s character came out. To O’Donnell, she joked the character was “Lebanese” — a way to tease the monumental plot without giving spoilers.
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