Rosie O’Donnell Apologized to Irish PM for ‘Embarrassing’ Trump Moment
The comedian and former host of “The View” also revealed what pushed her to escape America for her ancestral land.
Mike Marsland/Getty Images for Sky & NOW/Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Rosie O’Donnell said she personally reached out to Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin after he was put in the uncomfortable position of listening to President Donald Trump insult her in the Oval Office.
The comedian and former talk show host sent Martin a letter sharing “how embarrassed she was to have become a topic of conversation during what should have been a serious meeting,” according to a new interview in The New York Times about her decision to flee Trump’s America for Ireland. O’Donnell said Martin did not respond.
During his Oval Office sit-down with Trump last month, the Irish leader fielded a question from GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s MAGA reporter boyfriend, Brian Glenn, about why he would “let Rosie O’Donnell move to Ireland” given that the Irish are known as “happy, fun-loving people.”
After a confused Martin appeared to whisper “I don’t know who that is,” Trump jumped in to say, “You’re better off not knowing her.”
O’Donnell, who made an enemy of Trump as a co-host on The View long before he was elected president the first time, opened up to the Times’ Jacob Bernstein via video call from Ireland about her big move—while cautiously noting that her Irish citizenship is still pending.
She said she “never thought he would win again” and found living through his first term debilitating. “I was unbelievably heavy, I was drinking too much,” she said. “But there were guardrails.”
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O’Donnell added that being Irish Catholic was “a very big part” of her identity, and “coming back here does feel like coming home in a way that’s hard to explain or understand.” She also said the people she has met in her ancestral country are friendly in a way that feels “1,000 percent different than in the United States.”
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