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Rosie O’Donnell and Ellen DeGeneres were never friends and O’Donnell is finally open about their subtle rivalry.
The 60-year-old stopped by Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen this week and was asked why she and… DeGeneres, 64, has such a frosty relationship.
Despite having a lot in common – both had successful daytime talk shows, both female comics, both from lesbians – the stars never interacted.
Her side of the story: Rosie O’Donnell and Ellen DeGeneres were never friends, and O’Donnell finally talks about their subtle rivalry in Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen
O’Donnell was more or less persona non grata on The Ellen DeGeneres Show during his long tenure, but was eventually asked to appear as a guest on Season 19.
“We had this weird thing, and after my show was off the air and hers was on the air,” Rosie explained to Andy.
Larry King was up with Ellen and he said, ‘What ever happened to Rosie O’Donnell? Her show went through the basket! She came out as a lesbian and disappeared!”
“And Ellen said, and I quote, ‘I don’t know Rosie. We’re not friends.'”
“We had this weird thing, and after my show was off the air and hers was on the air,” Rosie explained to Andy.
At that point, Rosie was watching the interview with her ex-wife Kelli Carpenter at home.
“I was in bed with Kelli and I said, ‘Did I just hear that? Or was that a hallucination, an auditory voice in my…’, she recalled. ‘And that’s what happened. And it hurt my feelings like a baby. And I never really got over it.’
Nearly more than a decade later, Rosie was finally asked to guest-star on Ellen’s show, she revealed, but to make it “a a little less awkward’ there was talk of taking someone with her.
In the end that idea didn’t fly but O“Donnell doesn’t seem to have any ill will toward Ellen.
Larry King was up with Ellen and he said, ‘What ever happened to Rosie O’Donnell? Her show went through the basket! She came out as a lesbian and disappeared! And Ellen said, and I quote, “I don’t know Rosie. We’re not friends.”
“I was in bed with Kelli and I said, ‘Did I just hear that? Or was that a hallucination, an auditory voice in my…’, she recalled. ‘And that’s what happened. And it hurt my feelings like a baby. And I never really got over it.’
“I wish her all the good things in her life and that she is well,” she said.
The Rosie O’Donnell Show, a once very popular daytime chat series, aired from 1996 to 2002. Ellen’s talk show seemingly replaced Rosie in 2003 and lasted for 19 seasons until it ended in scandal.
DeGeneres was caught on and off the set for her behavior, sparking a massive toxic workplace scandal that sparked a company investigation and dropped ratings.
Ellen received bad publicity after her show’s employees complained about ill-treatment by the show’s execs as the coronavirus forced her to film the show from home
“I wish her all the good things in her life and that she is well,” she said.
An accumulation of professional problems for DeGeneres — who encouraged people to “be nice” on her show — emerged in March 2020, after comedian Kevin T. Porter went viral after asking his followers to post “insane” stories about “Ellen.” which was mean. in a charity effort for the Los Angeles Food Bank.
The tweet inspired hundreds of comments and fueled more bad publicity for the star as her show’s employees complained of ill-treatment by the show’s execs when the coronavirus forced DeGeneres to film her show from home.
In July 2020, Buzzfeed released a few reports in which they spoke to current and former employees of the show who said the program was plagued by a toxic work environment filled with bullying, sexual misconduct and racist comments.
Warner Bros.’ parent company, WarnerMedia, then launched an internal investigation into the show, saying the findings pointed to “some deficiencies in the day-to-day management of the show” and “deficiencies related to the day-to-day management of the show.”
In August 2020, Warner Bros. announced that executive producers Ed Glavin and Kevin Leman and co-executive producer Jonathan Norman “split” with the show prior to its 18th season.
When DeGeneres returned to the air in September 2020, she apologized for the scandal over things “that should never have happened.”
DeGeneres announced that she would be ending her show in May 2021, telling fans she intuitively felt it was time to wrap things up in the 19th season.
Talk Show Legends: The Rosie O’Donnell Show, a once very popular daytime chat series, aired from 1996 to 2002. Ellen’s talk show seemingly replaced Rosie in 2003 and lasted for 19 seasons until it ended in scandal