Rosie O’Donnell is opening up about the pros and cons of living far away from the United States in Ireland.
“The best part is that they don’t have celebrity culture there. Nobody really cares that you’re famous,” O’Donnell, 64, shared on the Tuesday, August 11, episode of the “Good Hang” podcast. “Now when people knew that I moved there, people would say, ‘Welcome, Rosie. Welcome to Ireland. You belong here.’ It’s so sweet.’”
One memory that O’Donnell won’t forget was when she visited a beer garden and found herself sitting next to a couple and their 2-year-old baby.
After spending nearly two and a half hours chatting away, the comedian thanked them for being so lovely and friendly. What came next was a thoughtful message and surprisingly sweet revelation.
Rosie O’Donnell is settling into her new life in Ireland with her family. “We chose Ireland and didn’t really know where to go,” O’Donnell exclusively told Us Weekly of her new home country while discussing her Hulu documentary special Unleashing Hope: The Power of Service Dogs for Children With Autism. “And someone said Dalkey and […]
“They said, ‘And by the way Rosie, we’re huge fans.’ And I said, ‘Oh, really? You thought you’d wait till the end of the dinner to bring that up?’ Like being funny, right?” O’Donnell recalled to podcast host Amy Poehler. “And she goes, ‘Well, surely it’s not the most important thing now, is it?’ I thought it was a sentence you’d never hear in America. It’s not the most important thing about you. And that’s what I found out when I was over in Ireland.”
O’Donnell — who is raising her 13-year-old adopted son Clay in Ireland — said there are some drawbacks to being away from the country she grew up in.
Rosie O’Donnell Courtesy of Good Hang With Amy Poehler/YouTube
For starters, she isn’t close enough to her grown kids and longtime friends.
“My friends are really my family and community and it’s been very difficult,” she said. “It’s lonely sometimes, but I have met two really good friends whose little kids have autism and they’re the same age as Clay and we socialize together and that’s been really helpful.” (In September 2022, O’Donnell revealed Clay’s autism diagnosis for the first time.)
Rosie O’Donnell has not looked back since moving across the pond to Ireland. “Never, for one moment since I arrived here, did I regret my choice. People have been so welcoming, so accepting, and they have a different view of celebrity in the culture here,” O’Donnell, 63, told Variety in an interview published on Thursday, […]
“It’s been very beautiful and very, very healing for me,” O’Donnell continued when describing her life in Ireland. “People say they notice a difference and I think I’m just calmer. I’m calmer being over there.”
The former cohost of The View still makes plenty of trips to the States. In June, she was able to attend the Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
She was also part of Rosie O’Donnell: Common Knowledge, a critically acclaimed one-woman show held in New York from July 22 to August 8.
