Updated

Updated · The Daily Beast · Aug 17

Rosie O’Donnell Reveals 15-Year Rift With Jimmy Kimmel Before 1-Week Guest-Hosting Stint

Updated

Updated · The Daily Beast · Aug 17

Rosie O’Donnell Reveals 15-Year Rift With Jimmy Kimmel Before 1-Week Guest-Hosting Stint

Q: What originally sparked the intense, years-long feud between Rosie and Jimmy before a tragic family loss finally brought them together?

It was sparked by a broader professional and cultural clash, not a single documented blowup: Rosie O’Donnell said Jimmy Kimmel “was never a fan” of hers, and she viewed him as “one of the bro guys,” which fed what she described as an “adversarial relationship.” Neither O’Donnell nor Kimmel has publicly laid out a specific inciting incident behind their years of tension. The reporting indicates the hostility stemmed from mutual distance and dislike within the entertainment world, with only occasional texts and brief encounters at parties. O’Donnell said Howard Stern even tried to help smooth things over at one point. The relationship began to thaw in 2011 after the death of Kimmel’s uncle, Frank Potenza, a former NYPD officer and frequent presence on *Jimmy Kimmel Live*. O’Donnell reached out to Kimmel to offer condolences, and he responded — a moment she identified as the turning point. Since then, their rapport appears to have improved steadily, leading to later collaborations and, ultimately, Kimmel inviting O’Donnell to guest-host his show.

3 articles · Updated · The Daily Beast · Aug 17

Rosie O’Donnell, 64, said Jimmy Kimmel’s invitation to guest-host his ABC show for a week “came out of the blue” because the two had long had an “adversarial relationship.”
The turning point came in 2011 after Kimmel’s uncle Frank Potenza died; O’Donnell said she wrote to Kimmel, he replied, and the contact helped thaw years of distance.
Kimmel, 58, framed her booking as “a special treat for our commander in chief,” leaning into O’Donnell’s long-running feud with Donald Trump as she fills in during his summer guest-host rotation.
Their relationship had already improved in public: O’Donnell appeared on Kimmel’s Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in 2024 and defended him in 2025 after his ABC series was briefly canceled.
O’Donnell now says she admires Kimmel’s anti-Trump stance and plans to use the hosting stint to continue his nightly political attacks while he takes a vacation.