Rosie O’Donnell feels regret over past mocking of Anne Heche and calls car crash ‘horrifying’

Rosie O’Donnell took to TikTok Sunday in a clip in which she expressed regret for mocking actress Anne Heche over a 2001 interview in the wake of Heche’s battle for life after a car crash on Friday.

‘I can’t stop thinking about this Anne Heche accident and how horrifying the whole thing is,’ O’Donnell, 60, said, ‘and feeling bad that I made fun of her when she was talking to Barbara Walters about having a relationship with space aliens.’

O’Donnell alluded to the possibility that Heche, 53, might have been under the influence of alcohol in the incident, in which Heche had been riding a Mini Cooper that careened into a Mar Vista, California home that caught fire following the collision.

‘If we have an honest discussion about drunk driving, we find out just how prevalent it is and that’s terrifying, isn’t it?’ O’Donnell said. ‘I wonder if she’s OK. I think it’s a miracle that she didn’t kill anyone … and I hope she survives. 

‘But wow, what a tragic tale. That car was on fire for a long time, they say … that is a hard sentence to give yourself, you know.’

O’Donnell praised the effectiveness of Alcoholics Anonymous and encouraged her followers to get help if they’re ‘struggling’ with alcohol, saying, ‘Try it before it’s too late – try it before you’re at your lowest.’

Heche, speaking in a 20/20 interview in September of 2001, said that she had built a ‘fantasy world’ and adopted an alternate identity named Celestia as result of the trauma from being sexually molested by her father at a young age.

‘I’m not crazy,’ Heche said. ‘But it’s a crazy life. I was raised in a crazy family and it took 31 years to get the crazy out of me. I had a fantasy world that I escaped to. I called my other personality Celestia … I believed I was from that world. I believed I was from another planet. I think I was insane.’

O’Donnell in February of 2002 mocked the interview at a benefit at New York’s Carolines Comedy Club, alluding to Heche’s former relationship with Ellen DeGeneres, USA Today reported at the time.

She said, ‘What the hell kind of train wreck was that? She couldn’t just say, “I was a lesbian for two years, it didn’t work out for me.”‘

Heche has been hospitalized since Friday following a car accident in which she suffered major burns in her vehicle while it in was ‘engulfed’ in fire.

A spokesperson for the actress told Page Six Monday that ‘shortly after the accident, Anne Heche became unconscious, slipping into a coma,’ adding that ‘she has a significant pulmonary injury requiring mechanical ventilation and burns that require surgical intervention.’

Officials with the Los Angeles Police Department said that a warrant had been enacted to run tests on Heche’s blood amid suspicion she might have been under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol, the outlet reported.

A spokesperson for Heche told People on Monday that the actress remains in ‘critical condition’ in the wake of the accident, as ‘she is in a coma and has not regained consciousness since shortly after the accident.’