Rosie O'Donnell said one of the most painful moments of her career came when Ellen DeGeneres told Larry King in 2004, "I don't know, Rosie. We're not friends." O'Donnell made the remark during a recent episode of Mamamia's "No Filter" podcast as she recounted a falling out with the comedian she had known for decades.
O'Donnell said the exchange stung because she and DeGeneres had been close for roughly 30 years and because she had supported DeGeneres early in her career. "I did think she was all of a sudden in the position I was in, where she was starting a show and wanted it to be successful and get the money and the accolades that came with it," O'Donnell said. "And instead of deciding to stand next to me and hold my hand, which is what I did to her, she did the opposite and I couldn't believe it."
O'Donnell recalled that she had left The Rosie O'Donnell Show after six seasons to spend time with her children and noted she was invited onto DeGeneres' talk show only "long after" it began. She said the programs had shared staff and a producer and that she had photos of DeGeneres holding O'Donnell's newborn children. The comment on Larry King came when the host asked DeGeneres about the end of O'Donnell's show two years earlier.
The comedian also revisited an earlier period when she deliberately supported DeGeneres as the latter's sitcom character came out in 1997. O'Donnell said she had DeGeneres on her show several months before the character's on-screen coming out and felt she could not "leave her out there alone." She described an agreed-upon, coded exchange in which DeGeneres' character might be called "Lebanese" and O'Donnell would play along, saying the moment resonated with viewers at home. O'Donnell came out publicly in 2002.
O'Donnell has previously discussed the rift. In 2023 she told The Hollywood Reporter that DeGeneres reached out to apologize. The latest remarks on the Mamamia podcast add to a long-running public account of the friendship's strain, as O'Donnell recounted both the support she offered early in DeGeneres' rise and the later exchange that she said felt like a betrayal.