Rosie O’Donnell is repairing her relationship with her eldest daughter, Chelsea.
“The first time that I saw her in a consistent way was the four hours in the prison,” she added, noting that Chelsea cried when the visit was cut short due to a tornado warning.
“And that’s the first time I’ve seen, kind of, an empathetic emotion from her,” O’Donnell explained.
“So, you know, she’s growing up,” she said, “and I hope that her future is brighter than this past decade has been.”
The “A League of Their Own” actress, 64, wrote a poem about the visit.
“The guard explained the rules,” she wrote in part. “A hug hello and goodbye only / No money exchanged / Hands above the table / No loud voices.”
O’Donnell penned that her heart “skip[ped] a beat” and she described Chelsea as looking “good” and exuding a “healthy calm.”
In February 2025, Chelsea, a mother-of-four, appeared in court over felony bail jumping, resisting or obstructing an officer and possession of methamphetamine and child neglect.
She was sentenced to six years of probation and warned that prison was an option if she violated her probation requirements.
That October, her probation was revoked and she was sentenced to jail.
“The View” alum noted that Chelsea, 28, has been sober for “almost two years now and that’s a very big part, you know; she was born addicted, and when I was adopting, I thought, ‘Well, love can cure everything,’ but I don’t know that that’s true.”
O’Donnell has four other children: son Parker, 31; son Blake, 26; daughter Vivi, 23; and her youngest, Clay, 13.
Her relationship with Chelsea will be the subject of Rosie’s next one-woman show.
“I’ve asked for Chelsea’s input,” the Emmy winner explained. “I sent it to her and said, ‘I’d really love to get you — your voice heard and just now what I perceive to be your voice … and I think she’s ready to do that now.”
Meanwhile, Rosie’s current show, “Common Knowledge,” is set to open on Broadway later this month, and it touches on her childhood, motherhood and recent move to Ireland following President Trump’s second term in office.
The “Sleepless in Seattle” star says she “wasn’t nervous” about the move “because I had read Project 2025 and I knew what they were planning and I knew if they were successful, that we were in very big trouble.”
“I knew the best thing for me to do would be to leave until it all got worked out,” she continued. “Which – I believe now people have woken up in the United States, and they understand, as you can tell by how empty his state fair was, and how his support has diminished significantly since I left.”
