Comedian Rosie O’Donnell joked she is having her first “straight” love affair with a Menendez brother after ditching the United States for a new life in Ireland.
In an interview with The New York Times published Saturday, O’Donnell said her relationship with Lyle Menendez began in 1996 after an appearance on Larry King Live. At the time, O’Donnell said she believed that the brothers had indeed killed their parents as an act of self-defense—as they have claimed—and Lyle sent her a letter of thanks for her support.
“At that point, I had not ventured anywhere near this in my family or in my therapy,” O’Donnell told the Times, adding that she did not write Lyle back at first.
Then, as the Menendez case gained new public interest in 2022, O’Donnell alleged that Lyle’s wife, Rebecca Sneed, contacted her to “see if she was interested in speaking with him.”
After an initial phone conversation with Lyle that lasted three hours, O’Donnell said they have been close pen pals since.
“He started calling me on a regular basis from the tablet phone thing they have,” she said. “He would tell me about his life, what he’s been doing in prison and, for the first time in my life, I felt safe enough to trust and be vulnerable and love a straight man.”
O’Donnell’s revelation comes amid several other major life changes. In March, O’Donnell confirmed that she had moved to Ireland to escape President Donald Trump and would return “when it’s safe for all citizens to have equal rights,” People reported.
O’Donnell told the Times, “I never thought he would win again.” Win he did, and O’Donnell’s therapist said, “Well, let’s make a real plan.”
Then, O’Donnell’s 27-year-old adopted daughter Chelsea announced that she would be changing her last name to reflect her birth mother’s maiden name.
That—along with brushes with the law over child neglect and drugs—led O’Donnell to cut her out of her $80 million estate.
O’Donnell posted a 30-stanza poem on Substack titled “my child chelsea,” seemingly washing her hands of her daughter’s troubles and wishing her well.
“she is doing so well now/in spite of the tabloid fodder/she’s working on herself/aren’t we all,” she wrote. “and she has the right to do it/without strangers judgement/i wish i could delete my fame/for her”
She added, “im proud of her/living her truth/i respect her desires/her struggles her success.”
