Rosie O'Donnell's Estranged Daughter Chelsea Reveals EVERYTHING About Her Mother –– Drug Use, Failed Relationships & What She's Like Off-Camera In 15 Clicks
Oct. 6 2015, Updated 3:25 p.m. ET
Rosie O'Donnell's daughter Chelsea holds nothing back in a new interview detailing her troubled relationship with her superstar parent.
Chelsea O'Donnell, seen here in New Jersey, explained the reasons behind her falling-out with mother Rosie in a shocking interview with DailyMail.com, where she drops details about what Rosie's like when the cameras are off. "Things were good when I was younger, but as I got older, I became more interested in knowing about my birth parents and didn't really get along with Rosie very well."
Chelsea said she finds her mother's on-camera personality to be nothing like the person who she's lived with the past 18 years. "It's like two different people," she said. "I find her not genuine a lot of the time. When we'd go out, she was a completely different person in public than at home and I had a hard time with that," Chelsea said, adding that she feels Rosie "should be her real self, who she really is."
Continuing with the theme, Chelsea said Rosie "has this public persona" in which she'll "put this big smile on her face and try to be funny. She would always go up to people and want to hold their babies in public. She had this happy, friendly side to her." But once out of the public eye, Chelsea said, it was a different story. "When we were home, even if it was on the same day, she would either just be in her room, not engaging with us, or watching documentaries -- and if we didn't want to do what she wanted to do, it would cause a big issue."
Chelsea denied Rosie's allegation that she ran away from the family's Nyack, New York home in August, claiming that The View star had booted her from the home just before she turned 18. "She told me to leave and take my dog" the teen said of the Aug. 11 exchange. Rosie knew I was planning to leave, that's why I think she kicked me out... I wasn't planning to go until I turned 18 on the 24th. Chelsea said after a reunion with her birth mother and her family in Wisconsin, she's settled in with boyfriend Steven Sheerer, a once-convicted drug dealer who's been back in court for his dealings with a then-underage Chelsea. "I guess everyone is putting out there he's a bad guy from things that happened in the past but he's not. He supports me and I love him. He's not into anything bad now, he works hard."
Chelsea took exception to the 53-year-old's public declaration that she was mentally ill after she left home, telling the publication, "I wouldn't say I'm mentally ill; I would say lots of people struggle with what I have." She added, "I think she did that because people started asking questions and she didn't want to seem like this bad parent that had kicked her daughter out. Putting out there that I am mentally ill was really hurtful. People think I'm this crazy person and as I've said, I have depression and bad anxiety -- but it's been something that's gotten a lot better. But these were personal things and I didn't want anyone to know them about me."
Chelsea opened up regarding Rosie's drug and alcohol use, saying that while the comic traded beer for wine in the wake of her August 2012 heart attack, and still "smokes weed." She clarified that while Rosie doesn't spark up around her kids, "the whole house smells like" marijuana after her smoking sessions.
While Rosie was one to eat plenty of pizza, Chinese food and candy prior to her health crisis, "She's had to be healthier since her heart attack," Chelsea said. "She has a lady who comes in to cook for her now, so she eats a little better. The chef makes her smaller portions of the stuff you are supposed to eat – like protein, vegetables and carbs."
Rosie will often kill large chunks of time in an adjacent house to her mansion she purchased to store her arts and crafts collection, as well as watch documentaries and blast music, Chelsea said. "She has some speakers set up and she blasts Madonna, she's obsessed with her. But she also like to play Eminem and Chris Brown."
In one jaw-dropping revelation, Chelsea claimed she was "pretty much raised by nannies" by the name of Geraldine and Tanya. "They have both been a huge part of my life and support," she said. "If Rosie was in the city, they would stay at the house. Geraldine lived five minutes away so she was there whenever. There were other nannies in between but those two were significant to me."
Recalling childhood memories with Rosie and her siblings (Parker, 20; Blake, 15; and Vivienne, 12), Chelsea told the outlet, "Rosie would play with us sometimes. When I was 11 and Parker was 13, we were obsessed with Scrabble and she would play with us. She showed affection with my siblings but I don't like her touching me, but that's just me," she said. "We wouldn't cuddle up on the couch and watch movies, we would take our own chairs."
Chelsea detailed her stormy time with her parent: "Rosie's fuse was really short with me and she would yell. For punishment, we were sent to our rooms, no electronics, not being allowed to hang out with friends," she said. "She told me I was different from the other kids. At the beginning of the summer when Parker was acting like a jerk and she was yelling at him, she turned to me and said, 'See, you're not the problem child anymore.'"
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In regards to her adoption, Chelsea said that Rosie told her hurtful lies about her birth mother. "Rosie told me some things about being adopted when I was younger but she lied to me about the adoption; she said when she got me, I was in withdrawal from heroin because my birth mom had been using when she was pregnant with me -- but I recently went to the hospital in Wisconsin where I was born and got my birth records." Medical testing, according to Chelsea, proved "there was nothing in my system and my tests came back clean."
Chelsea also dished details of Rosie's turbulent last tenure at The View, amid ongoing tension with Whoopi Goldberg. "She and Whoopi really didn't get along and she'd come home every day and talk about how she was stoned on set and she was being really mean to her,'' Chelsea explained, noting that Rosie's health came into play when evaluating whether or not to keep the gig. "Rosie said, 'I've already had a heart attack, I don't need this much stress.'"
Chelsea recalled the difficult details of Rosie's marriage to Kelli Carpenter: "They weren't getting along, they were fighting a lot" and "they would turn the TV up when we were watching it and go outside and yell at each other." She said she's had "depression and anxiety" since their breakup.
Chelsea also dished on the end of Rosie's relationship with Michelle Rounds, which blew up over last Thanksgiving trip. She said: "According to Rosie .... Michelle had said horrible things about me and my siblings. Michelle and her family got up and left Rosie alone in the Florida house in the middle of the night. I guess that was the final straw. Rosie told Michelle she needed to move out by a certain day before me and my siblings got home. When we got back, she was gone."
