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O’Donnell and now-President Donald Trump have had a publicly contentious dynamic since their old TV days
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- Rosie O’Donnell tells PEOPLE if anyone had written the story of her and President Donald Trump as a movie, “it would be unbelievable”
- The comedian’s move to Ireland has allowed her to “reclaim” herself, but she admits “it’s very strange to have supposedly the most powerful man in the word be your archnemesis”
- With a new one woman show, Common Knowledge, opening July 22, she says, “I love this country. I’m a very patriotic American”
Ask Rosie O’Donnell about life in her mid-60s and she says, “It’s glorious. I love it because you don’t care so much what everyone thinks. When you’re 40 or 30, you’re worried all the time. Am I doing it right? And now you don’t really care.”
“It used to be when our president would say things about me, it would be like, whoa,” continues the 64-year-old comedian, referencing her publicly contentious history with President Donald Trump. “First of all, if you had written this as a movie, a stand-up comic makes fun of a reality show host who is a bloviating idiot and he ends up being the president, and then he doesn’t shut up about her for 20 years, it would be unbelievable — and the fact that it’s my life is very trippy.”
After moving to Ireland in January 2025, O’Donnell is back in New York this summer and starring in her one woman show, Common Knowledge, opening July 22 at the Daryl Roth Theatre in New York City. It’s a play about growing up in Commack, Long Island, and losing her mother when she was 10 years old — “the defining moment of my life” — then raising five kids, Parker, 31, Blake, 26, Chelsea, 28, Vivienne, 23, and Clay, 13, and finding a new home in the land of her ancestors.
A while back, Clay told her she’d changed since moving to Ireland. “You’re softer now,” said Clay. The two had just been out and seen an upset young kid who was crying and the mother who was trying to comfort her child. “I didn’t know if the child had autism but thought it was a possibility,” O’Donnell recalls, “and I started to cry and Clay grabbed my hand and when we got home, Clay said, ‘You know what I’ve noticed since we got to Ireland, you’re softer now. I saw you were crying.’ I was like, ‘Oh God, you’re killing me.’ ”
“I said thank you for noticing and I love you very much,” O’Donnell recalls. “And then Clay rolls their eyes like all my kids do. I said, ‘I felt sad for that boy and for the mommy.’ ”
“I am softer I think as a result of being there, of the welcome that we got, and as a result of me not being constantly bombarded by news about the current president,” O’Donnell explains to PEOPLE.
“It’s like a post-traumatic stress disorder for me, considering it’s been 20 years of him using me as a punchline, and so I think that has allowed me to reclaim myself, who I was before all that went down, even though it’s very strange to have supposedly the most powerful man in the word be your arch nemesis,” she adds.
She also credits her youngest child, who is non-binary and autistic, for bringing out her tender side. “Clay’s vulnerability has forced me to be more connected,” says O’Donnell. “They want to spend all their time with me on their iPad so it’s forced us to be close in a way that I hadn’t been with my other kids. My show is a love letter to Clay as well.”
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And she’s “thrilled” to be guest hosting for Jimmy Kimmel Live!, beginning Aug. 17, where she can temporarily pick up Jimmy Kimmel’s torch as a nightly critic of Trump.
“I’m very happy that he asked me,” she says of Kimmel. “I admire him. I admire his tenacity and strength. I admire his conviction to speak out against this political terrorism that’s happening in our country and I stand beside him and will. And so I was thrilled when he asked me. I want to honor him and do my best and I hope everyone tunes in.”
“I am a very patriotic American,” she adds. “I love this country.”
Read the original article on People
