02:50
Rosie O’Donnell Weighs In on Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s ‘Strange’ Re…
02:34
Prince Harry Gets Emotional During Queen Elizabeth’s Service
01:52
Megan Hilty’s Sister, Brother-in-Law and Their Child Killed in P…
05:58
Zac Efron Reacts to Jaw Injury That Sparked Plastic Surgery Rumo…
03:37
Nick Cannon on Welcoming Baby No. 8 and How His ‘Masked Singer’ …
07:29
‘Cobra Kai’s Ralph Macchio & William Zabka on Return of O.G. Cas…
03:00
Why Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Want Their Kids to Have Royal…
03:05
Prince Harry and Prince William Walk Behind Queen Elizabeth’s Co…
01:30
Prince Harry Can’t Wear Military Uniform to Queen’s Funeral Afte…
02:40
Luke Bell, Country Musician, Found Dead at 32 Over a Week After …
03:29
Todd and Julie Chrisley Break Their Silence After Guilty Verdict…
02:07
‘America’s Got Talent’: The Mayyas on Winning Season 17 and Sofi…
05:36
Vince Gill Shares Wife Amy Grant Health Update After Her Bike Ac…
03:24
Jason Momoa Raves About Playing a ‘Family Man’ for the First Tim…
03:18
Prince William Inherits Ancient Estate Worth $1 Billion Followin…
01:17
Trisha Paytas Breaks Down in Tears Discussing Gender Identity on…
03:09
Ryan Reynolds Reflects on 10 Years of Marriage With ‘Best Friend…
02:37
Drake Milligan Reacts to ‘Sounds Like Something I’d Do’ Performa…
02:21
Jason Momoa Debuts Head Tattoo After Shaving Off His Hair!
As a daytime talk show veteran, Rosie O’Donnell may have paved the way for Ellen DeGeneres, but the 60-year-old actress and TV personality never appeared on DeGeneres’ long-lived talk show.
DeGeneres, now 64, jokingly came out as “Lebanese” on The Rosie O’Donnell Show in 1996 ahead of her character coming out as a lesbian on her show Ellen. At the time, O’Donnell hinted that she too was a member of the LGBTQ+ community years before she publicly came out. But O’Donnell never appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
On Thursday’s Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, a fan asked why O’Donnell never appeared as a guest throughout the 19-season run of DeGeneres’ famed talk show.
“We had a little bit of a weird thing,” O’Donnell told Cohen of DeGeneres. “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.'”
O’Donnell was stunned by the moment, saying, “I was in bed with Kelli [Carpenter, O’Donnell’s first wife], and I said, ‘Did I just hear that or was that a hallucination, auditory voice in my [head]?’ It hurt my feelings, like a baby, and I never really got over it.”
O’Donnell shared that DeGeneres’ team asked her “once towards the end” to come on the show. She requested to bring someone with her to make it “a little less awkward,” but said the show “didn’t want to do that” and so she passed.
<iframe width="200" height="113" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cOD8MyUOZY0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" title="What Happened Between Rosie O'Donnell and Ellen DeGeneres?
