A jail sentence was the beginning of a wonderful friendship for Rosie O'Donnell and Lyle Menendez.

The comic has opened up about her deep bond with Menendez, who was sentenced to life with out parole in 1994 alongside his brother, Erik Menendez, for the 1989 murders of their dad and mom, Kitty and José Menendez.

O'Donnell recalled receiving a letter from Lyle thanking her for her "help" following her 1996 look on Larry King Reside, throughout which she said that she thought the siblings' killings have been a type of self-defense after their father abused and molested them as youngsters. Within the letter, Lyle wrote that O'Donnell "knew from a private place that what he was saying was true," the previous speak present host mentioned in a brand new interview with The New York Times revealed Saturday.

The actress alleged that she and her siblings had certainly been molested by their father. "At that time, I had not ventured anyplace close to this in my household or in my remedy," she informed the Instances. Soshe by no means responded to Menendez.

Nonetheless, in 2022, they solid an sudden friendship when curiosity within the Menendez brothers' case surged on TikTok after the discharge of a documentary detailing the murders and the trial that adopted. (The eye solely grew following the 2024 premiere of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, the second season of the anthology crime drama from Ryan Murphy.) In response, O'Donnell took to TikTok, once more claiming the Menendez brothers have been victims of sexual abuse and that they finally killed their dad and mom due to it.

Lyle's spouse, Rebecca Sneed, reached out to O'Donnell after, asking her if she would need to converse with Lyle. O'Donnell mentioned sure, and her first telephone dialog with the prisoner lasted three hours.

"He began calling me regularly from the pill telephone factor they’ve,” O'Donnell mentioned within the Instances story. "He would inform me about his life, what he's been doing in jail, and, for the primary time in my life, I felt protected sufficient to belief and be weak and love a straight man."

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Dismissing issues from her buddies over their communication, O'Donnell mentioned she visited Menendez in jail, the place she noticed a number of inmates with canine. When she requested Menendez how they have been allowed to have pets, he informed her a few program the jail needed to place canine with blind, disabled veterans and autistic youngsters, and steered that she undertake a canine for her 12-year-old son, Clay. He was finally paired with a Labrador combine, and O'Donnell "seen the change in Clay instantly." The occasions impressed O'Donnell to make an upcoming documentary, Unleashing Hope: The Energy of Service Canine for Autism, which is able to spotlight the optimistic results of the jail program. It premieres April 22 on Hulu.

O'Donnell beforehand spoke about her blossoming reference to Lyle in a June 2023 TikTok, praising Sneed and telling her followers that the Menendez brothers needs to be freed. "It's time. I consider them," she mentioned. "They have been horribly abused by their dad and mom. They did the unthinkable that had been finished to them day after day after day, they usually paid the worth for it."

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The SMILF star first opened up in regards to the abuse she allegedly endured from her father, Edward Joseph, in a 2019 interview with Variety. "It began very younger," O'Donnell informed the outlet, "after which when my mom died, it type of led to a bizarre method, as a result of then he was with these 5 youngsters to care for. On the entire, it's not one thing I like to speak about. In fact, it modifications everybody."

The previous cohost of The View moved to Eire in January 2025 with Clay, earlier than Trump's second inauguration. Talking candidly about her resolution on TikTok, O'Donnell defined that she meant to get Irish citizenship — she has Irish grandparents — and that Clay was "glad."

"When it’s protected for all residents to have equal rights there in America," she mentioned, "that's once we will take into account coming again."

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