Updated

Updated · The Daily Beast · Aug 19

Rosie O'Donnell Mocks Trump's Air Force One Escape on Night 2 of Kimmel Guest Run

Updated

Updated · The Daily Beast · Aug 19

Rosie O'Donnell Mocks Trump's Air Force One Escape on Night 2 of Kimmel Guest Run

Q: How did an unexpected family tragedy secretly pave the way for a legendary television host's surprising late-night comeback?

An unexpected family loss helped thaw Rosie O’Donnell’s long-cool relationship with Jimmy Kimmel and ultimately opened the door to her guest-hosting return on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” O’Donnell said she and Kimmel had never really had a close relationship and described it as somewhat adversarial. The turning point came after the death of Kimmel’s uncle, Frank Potenza, a former NYPD officer and familiar comedic presence on Kimmel’s show. O’Donnell reached out to Kimmel with a message of sympathy, and he wrote back. That brief exchange appears to have created a personal connection where little had existed before. Years later, when Kimmel’s team invited her to fill in as a summer guest host, O’Donnell said the offer “came out of the blue” and surprised her because she had never even appeared as a guest on the show. So the private aftermath of Frank Potenza’s death did not directly “cause” the comeback, but it helped repair a strained dynamic between the two entertainers. That made it possible for Kimmel to extend the invitation and for O’Donnell to accept it warmly. The result was a notable full-circle television moment: a veteran daytime host, long absent from American late-night TV, returning to the desk because a moment of condolence years earlier quietly changed the relationship behind the scenes.

Q: What deeply personal struggles prompted a famous entertainer to completely abandon Hollywood for a quiet, reinvented life in Ireland?

Rosie O’Donnell’s move to Ireland was driven by a mix of family, mental-health, and safety concerns rather than a simple career change. By her own account, the immediate trigger was fear about the climate in the United States and how it could affect her youngest child, Clay, who is autistic and nonbinary. O’Donnell said she wanted a calmer, safer environment for Clay and no longer felt secure staying in the U.S. after Trump’s return to office. She had begun preparing an exit plan in advance, with encouragement from her therapist. The move also reflected a deeper personal strain. People close to O’Donnell said her long fixation on public conflict and the nonstop news cycle had begun to take a serious mental toll. O’Donnell herself has said she was trying to escape the stress, anxiety and emotional exhaustion that had overtaken daily life in America. Family members later described her as visibly happier in Ireland, talking more about Clay, work and the beauty of her surroundings than about the news. Her reinvention in Ireland also connected to older wounds and family history. In her one-woman show “Common Knowledge,” O’Donnell ties her return to Ireland to her Irish roots, the childhood trauma of losing her mother at age 10, and her identity as a parent. The result was not just leaving Hollywood, but rebuilding life around caregiving, grief, heritage and peace.

3 articles · Updated · The Daily Beast · Aug 19

Rosie O'Donnell used her second night guest-hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live! to mock Donald Trump over his reported escape from Air Force One in a catering cart.
The jab targeted a maneuver revealed last week: Trump allegedly left the plane that way, switched aircraft after a NATO summit in Turkey, and headed home amid an alleged Iranian assassination plot.
O'Donnell, 64, folded the episode into her long-running feud with Trump, 80, joking he was "watching us this evening from inside a catering cart" and crediting him with making her "re-famous."
The appearance is part of a 4-night summer hosting stint handpicked by Kimmel, extending a public clash that dates to 2006 and has recently flared again over O'Donnell's move to Ireland.