Rosie O'Donnell has gotten a tattoo on her left wrist as a reminder to use her child Clay's correct pronouns. O'Donnell shared the story on Amy Poehler's podcast "Good Hang," explaining that her child, who came out as nonbinary in 2024 at age 12, uses they/them pronouns.
"It's very hard, honey," O'Donnell, 64, admitted on the podcast. "And [gender-neutral pronouns] really matters to them and I know it matters to them. And so when they first told me that it was they/them, I tried my best, but I kept saying 'she.'"
To help her remember, Clay would hold up a handwritten sign that said "they" whenever O'Donnell used incorrect pronouns, a tactic O'Donnell compared to John Cusack's character in "Say Anything." O'Donnell then took the sign to a tattoo shop.
"I had it tattooed on my wrist so that I would never forget, that it would remind me," she recalled. "And I thought she'd be very touched, she didn't give two s***s. She could not care less."
O'Donnell noted that she still occasionally misgenders Clay, even while recounting the story. "I just [said she] again in the 'they' story! I messed it up!"
In 2024, O'Donnell previously shared that Clay, then 10 years old and formerly known as Dakota, educated her on the distinction between sex and gender. "Mommy, [genitalia] is their sex. That's binary. I'm talking about their gender. And gender is infinite," Clay reportedly told her.
O'Donnell adopted Clay during her marriage to Michelle Rounds. The comedian moved to Ireland in January 2025. She is also the adoptive mother of four other children from her previous relationship with Kelli Carpenter: Parker, Chelsea, Blake, and Vivienne.