Rosie O’Donnell said “a weird thing” led her to never appear on Ellen DeGeneres’ former talk show.
The “Now and Then” star helped pave the way for DeGeneres and her now-canceled series, but explained on “Watch What Happens Live” on Thursday that the “Finding Nemo” voice actress ultimately turned her down.
“We had this weird thing,” O’Donnell told Andy Cohen. “After my show went off and hers came on, Larry King was on Ellen and he said, ‘What 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 are not friends.'”
O’Donnell, 60, admitted she “never really got over” DeGeneres’ public comments.
“I was in bed with Kelli [Carpenter]and I said, ‘Did I just hear that or was that a hallucination, an auditory voice in my… [head]?” said O’Donnell, shocked. “It hurt my feelings, like a baby, and I never really got over it.”
The “Mr. Wrong” star, 64, had appeared on “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” and jokingly came out as “Lebanese”, but DeGeneres’ public comments kept O’Donnell from appearing on the DeGeneres show despite receiving a invitation “at the end ” of the performance of the show.
The “Harriet the Spy” star said she wanted to bring someone along so it would be “a little less awkward,” but the DeGeneres staff “didn’t want to do that,” so O’Donnell declined.
O’Donnell closed the conversation and said to Cohen, “I wish her all the good things in her life and that she’s doing well, so there you go.”