Welcome back to the Deep Dive. If you're here,
you know the drill. We give you the shortcut
to knowledge, not just random facts, but the
context, the connections, the stuff that makes
the whole story make sense. Right. And today
we're diving into, well, quite a story. Four
decades packed with stand -up comedy, massive
celebrity, intense conflict, and ending, remarkably,
with a quest for citizenship abroad. Our subject
is Rosie O'Donnell, born Roseanne O'Donnell,
1962. And when you look at her life, it's really
a study in contrasts, isn't it? Absolutely. You've
got huge mainstream success. We're talking daytime
Emmys, major Hollywood films, running headlong
into these periods of just incredibly intense
public controversy. Often controversy she seemed
to actively court, you could say. It really is
this massive amount of information, this real
duality. Our mission today for you listening
is to try and navigate all that. We want to distill
the core achievements. Yeah, the big moments.
The major pivots, both personal and political,
and maybe understand some of that foundational
stuff, the early life that really shaped her
public image. It's about clarity, context, you
know, understanding how someone goes from being
universally loved as the queen of nice to this
hyperpolitical figure who just recently actually
left the United States. OK, so. We've got a pretty
comprehensive stack here. Covers everything from
her early stand -up days, the big talk show era,
the, let's call them, turbulent years on The
View. Turbulent is one word for it, yeah. And,
of course, this very recent, very public move
to Ireland in 2025. And to really understand
the fire, you kind of have to look at the fuel,
right? So that means going right back to the
beginning, her earliest days. Okay, let's unpack
that foundation. Born, raised, come back to New
York. Yeah. Roman Catholic family. Irish -American
roots. Deep Irish -American roots. Her father,
Edward Joseph O'Donnell, was actually an immigrant
himself, came over from County Donegal. And that
detail about County Donegal becomes, well, surprisingly
relevant much later on, as we'll see. But that
family life, it wasn't idyllic. Our sources are
pretty clear. It was marked by significant tragedy
and also what's described as generational abuse.
Yeah, the first major blow was her mother, Roseanne
Teresa. She died from breast cancer. Rosie was
just about to turn 11. March 1973. Losing your
mom that young, that's obviously devastating.
But the sources indicate the trauma ran deeper
than that loss. They mention a really staggering
history of family trauma. The phrase used is
generational abuse and alcoholism. And they explicitly
state that Rosie and her siblings were sexually
abused by their father. Yeah. And knowing that,
I mean, it casts a different light on pretty
much everything that follows, doesn't it? It
really does. It provides this. psychological
engine, maybe, the kind you often see in performers,
people who need that external validation. Exactly.
And look at the contrast in her adolescence.
This private horror happening at home, but publicly.
She was thriving socially. It's wild. Voted homecoming
queen, prom queen, senior class president, and
the key one, class clown. Class clown. That feels
significant, right? It suggests comedy wasn't
just fun for her. It was maybe a survival tool.
It's kind of social armor, yeah. Being the funny
one, doing imitations like Gilder Radner's Rosanna
Dana character, apparently it's a way to control
room, deflect pain, get people to like you. Makes
perfect sense. Comedy is a defense mechanism.
And she didn't hang around, dropped out of college
pretty quick, and hit the stand -up circuit from
1979 to 84. Started when she was just 17. 17!
Wow. And then the big break, the thing that really
took her from clubs to national awareness, that
came in 84. Star Search. That was the launch
pad. Right. She wasn't just on it. She killed
it, right? Totally. Won five weeks in a row.
That kind of national exposure, you just couldn't
buy it back then. And that led straight into
TV roles. Yeah. Early stuff like, give me a break
in 86. Hosting VH1's stand -up spotlight a couple
years later. Building momentum. And then the
leap to movies. And not just small parts. A League
of Their Own, 1992. That was massive. Huge. And
look who she's alongside. Tom Hanks, Geena Davis,
Madonna. Right. And she and Madonna apparently
hit it off immediately. Became lifelong friends.
Yeah, that friendship endured. And her film career...
Through the 90s, it's actually pretty diverse
when you look back. People kind of forget that
because the talk show became so huge. True. Like,
she was the sarcastic best friend in Sleepless
in Seattle. Perfect casting. Then, totally different,
Betty Rubble in the live -action Flintstones.
Huh, yeah. And more serious stuff, too, like
Beautiful Girls. Yeah. And voice work. Remember
Turk in Disney's Tarzan? Oh, yeah, the gorilla.
She had range. But what's maybe even more telling
than the roles she took are the ones she turned
down. Especially right before the talk show launched.
It feels like she was carefully crafting an image.
Definitely. Two big what -ifs stand out in the
sources. First, she was apparently seriously
considered for Elaine Benny's on Seinfeld. Wow.
Imagine that alternate timeline. Elaine played
by Rosie O'Donnell. Totally different show. But
the rejection that really speaks volumes, I think,
is Hocus Pocus. Ah, yes. Disney wanted her for
Mary Sanderson, the sort of goofy witch sister.
Kathy Nott Jimmy eventually got the part. And
the reason she turned it down, according to our
sources, she said she explicitly refused to play
a character who was a frightening evil witch,
especially one mean to kids. So connect that
back to the comedy's armor idea. Exactly. It
fits perfectly. Her whole public persona, her
coping mechanism maybe, was built on being likable,
funny, relatable. Not scary, not evil. She was
building the character that was about to take
over daytime TV. The Queen of Nice, hashtag tag
three. The Queen of Nice and the Dawn of Activism,
1996 -2002. Right. So 1996, the Rosie O'Donnell
Show launches. Her own production company, Kid
Row Productions. And it wasn't just a success.
It was huge. A phenomenon. Yeah. Multiple daytime
Emmys. It really changed the feel of daytime
TV for a while. And that nickname stuck. queen
of nice. It felt like an antidote, didn't it,
to maybe some of the more cynical talk shows
or the trashier daytime stuff that was around
them. Totally. It was all upbeat energy, lighthearted
interviews. Remember the koosh balls she tossed
to the audience? Yeah, the koosh balls and the
constant professed crush on Tom Cruise. Right.
It made her seem accessible, friendly, celebrity
culture, but kind of defanged, you know. Less
edgy. And she really used that New York City
location to her advantage, became this massive
champion for Broadway. Oh, absolutely. Constantly
had casts on, promoting shows, giving away tickets.
She gave Broadway a huge boost, a real force
for the arts community there, using her platform
for generosity. That generosity was central to
the brand. But then things started to shift.
That brand started to kind of bummed up against
her own developing political conscience. The
big pivot point seems to be 1999, after the Columbine
High School shootings. That event really seemed
to galvanize her. And the Queen of Nice persona,
well, it couldn't really contain the anger she
felt about that, could it? Not at all. She became
incredibly outspoken, a leading voice advocating
for gun control. Got heavily involved with things
like the Million Mom March. And her statements
weren't wishy -washy. For a daytime host, they
were really aggressive. Shockingly direct for
that time slot. She said, flat out on her show,
You are not allowed to own a gun. And if you
do own a gun, I think you should go to prison.
Wow. But here's the massive contradiction, the
thing people jumped on immediately. The Kmart
connection. Exactly. While she's saying this
on TV, she's also the multimillion dollar celebrity
spokesperson for Kmart. Which at that specific
time was the single largest volume retailer of
firearms in the entire U .S. I couldn't script
that irony better. The tension was just right
there out in the open. And it culminated in that.
incredibly awkward, now infamous interview in
1999 with Tom Selleck. Oh, yeah. He was on to
promote a movie, The Love Letter, I think. Yeah,
but Selleck was also, you know, known for being
an NRA member and doing some unpaid ads for them.
And Rosie didn't just ask him about it. She went
after him. Hard. It was an interrogation, really.
Pushing him on the NRA's stance on so -called
assault weapons, trying to get him to apologize
for being involved with them. Live on daytime
TV, Selick looked completely blindsided. So uncomfortable
to watch. She ended it by saying something like
the conversation hadn't gone how she'd hoped.
Yeah, a massive understatement. It showed just
how difficult it was to use that nice platform
for what was becoming a pretty nasty political
fight for her. Did the Kmart deal end soon after?
It did. Later that same year, 1999, there was
huge backlash from gun rights groups, obviously.
The pressure mounted. And the contract ended.
But the fight had become personal, too. The sources
mentioned security concerns. Yeah, this really
underscores the reality of that kind of public
conflict. In 2000, because of threats against
her and her family, direct results of her gun
control stance, her security team actually requested
that her bodyguard apply for a concealed carry
permit. So the very thing she was fighting against,
private citizens carrying guns, became something
her own team felt was necessary to protect her.
The irony is profound. It shows the real -world
cost, the personal risk involved in taking such
a public, controversial stand. So she's already
deep in political controversy. Then comes another
major pivot, just as the show is ending in 2002,
a deeply personal one. Her public coming out
as a lesbian. The way she did it was very rosy.
Strategic makeup. Seems like it. First, she played
a lesbian mom on an episode of Will & Grace.
Then, shortly after, during a stand -up gig,
she just declared, I'm a dyke. But the reason
she gave, the main motivation, wasn't just about
personal truth, was it? No, not primarily. She
framed it as explicitly political. It was a direct
protest against Florida's laws at the time, which
banned gay people from adopting children. Right.
She was already a foster and adoptive mom herself.
So she was using her coming out, her celebrity,
to shine a huge spotlight on that specific issue.
Yeah. Affecting LGBTQ families. Which is powerful.
But inevitably, perhaps, it also caused some
friction even within the LGBTQ community. How
so? Well, some activists pointed to all those
years of her joking about being infatuated with
Tom Cruise on the show. They argued it felt deceptive,
like she'd been playing a role for mainstream
acceptance. Ah. The authenticity question. How
did she respond? With a very characteristic,
blunt comeback. She basically said about Cruz,
I said I wanted him to mow my lawn and bring
me a lemonade. I never said I wanted to blow
him. Okay. Yeah, that sounds like her. Using
humor to deflect criticism. Pretty much. But
despite that minor controversy, she was widely
recognized as a major advocate. The Advocate
magazine named her Person of the Year in 2002.
She started writing a column for them. So when
her talk show ended later that year, the Queen
of Nice chapter was definitively closed. Absolutely.
The activist was now front and center, and the
stage was set for even more fireworks. Hashtag
Chaktag 5E. The turbulent view and the age of
hyper -controversy. 2006, 2007, 2014, 2015. Okay,
buckle up. Because the next chapter, starting
around 2006, it's not just controversial. It's
like controversy squared, hyper -controversy.
Yeah, this is when she joins The View. She takes
over from Meredith Vieira as moderator in September
2006. And this move, it wasn't just a job change
for her. It arguably helped change the whole
landscape of daytime TV. What do you mean? While
the network probably knew what they were getting,
to some extent, Rosie immediately brought this
huge buzz factor, as the sources call it. The
show became much more focused on news, on arguments.
Exactly. And the numbers proved it worked, at
least initially. Ratings shot up 27 % in her
first year. Record highs for the show. She basically
demonstrated that conflict could sell, even in
that traditionally softer daytime slot. It kind
of paved the way for the sort of Partson shout
fest we see everywhere now, maybe. You could
definitely argue that. She and Joy Behar formed
this strong liberal pairing, constantly taking
on the Bush administration, the Iraq War. Which
inevitably put them on a collision course with
the show's conservative voice at the time. Elizabeth
Hasselbeck. Constantly sparring. But Rosie's
controversies often went way beyond typical political
debate. She took aim at institutions. Like the
Catholic Church comments. Yeah, that was back
in 2003, even before The View, talking about
the abuse scandals. She said she hoped the church
got sued so much they'd have to melt down some
of the gold toilets in the Pope's Vatican to
pay. Oof. Yeah, that's going to generate heat.
And she didn't stop there, right? On The View
itself. Nope. 2007, after a Supreme Court ruling
on abortion, she jumps into this whole separation
of church and state thing by asking, rhetorically,
how many Supreme Court judges are Catholic? Again,
deliberately provocative, designed to get a reaction.
Absolutely. These weren't accidental slips of
the tongue. They felt calculated. But sometimes
the provocation backfired spectacularly, like
the racial gaffe in December 2006. Oh, the Ching
Chong incident. Yeah. Trying to imitate Chinese
newscasters, she used that phrase repeatedly.
The backlash was intense, especially from Asian
-American groups who felt betrayed by someone
seen as a progressive ally. And her apology didn't
really help, did it? Not really. It got heavily
criticized. Time called it a pseudo -apology.
She claimed she didn't know the phrase was that
offensive, comparing ignorance levels to the
N -word. Which is already shaky ground. Right.
But then she kind of undercut the whole thing
by adding this weird disclaimer, almost joking,
that she'd probably do something like that again,
probably in the next week, not on purpose. Hmm.
It reads as dismissive, doesn't it? Like she
couldn't fully own the impact of her words. A
pattern, maybe. It does seem like a pattern.
That inability to maybe filter or to fully grapple
with the consequences of her rhetoric. And that
tendency then led directly into the defining
feud of her career. The one that really previewed
our modern political climate. The war with Donald
Trump. It kicked off in December 2006. Remember
the Miss USA scandal with Tara Conner? Trump
made this big show of reinstating her after some
controversy. Right. Rosie went after him on The
View, basically accusing him. of exploiting the
situation for publicity and questioned his moral
standing to do so oh yeah pointed to his multiple
marital affairs and questionable business bankruptcies
now this is 2006 trump remember reality tv star
tabloid guy not yet the political figure but
his reaction was Something else. Instantaneous,
vicious, a total media assault. He threatened
to sue her, never actually did. But he hurled
these incredibly personal insults, called her
names, attacked her appearance. And made that
really chilling comment about her partner at
the time, Kelly Carpenter. Yeah, suggesting he'd
send one of my friends to pick up her girlfriend
Kelly and I think it would be easy. Just deeply
unpleasant, threatening stuff. Way beyond typical
celebrity spats. And this put Barbara Walters,
the show's creator and sort of den mother. in
a really tough spot. Totally caught in the middle.
Rosie felt Barbara didn't defend her strongly
enough against Trump's attacks. Sources say there
was a major blow up between them in a dressing
room over it. Loyalty betrayal. All that raw
emotion. So the tension is just ratcheting up.
And it all boils over in May 2007 during these
really intense on -air debates about the Iraq
war. This is where she steps into really controversial
territory regarding 9 -11 truthiness. Right.
She started questioning the official account
of the World Trade Center collapse, saying, I
do believe that it's the first time in history
that fire has ever melted steel. Which, you know,
immediately aligns her with 9 -11 conspiracy
theories. And she didn't stop there with Iraq.
No, she challenged the whole narrative, asking
her co -hosts, 655 ,000 Iraqi civilians dead.
Who are the terrorists? And that line, who are
the terrorists, was immediately seized upon by
conservative media as her equating U .S. soldiers
with terrorists. Whether she meant it that way
or not, that's how it landed. And that led straight
to the final explosive confrontation with Elizabeth
Hasselbeck. Yeah. The core of that argument was
Rosie feeling that Elizabeth, who she considered
a friend, wouldn't defend her against those specific
conservative attacks. She felt betrayed. But
the actual breaking point, the thing that made
her walk away, wasn't just the argument itself.
No. According to the sources, it was a production
choice. During that heated exchange, the show
used a really dramatic split -screen visual.
Rosie on one side, Elizabeth on the other. Pure
visual conflict. And Rosie saw that as? As a
setup. She felt the producers deliberately chose
that visual to maximize the drama, to egg her
on, as she put it, rather than facilitating any
kind of real resolution. She felt used for ratings.
So she quit. Just like that. Two days later,
she was gone. Walked away from her contract early.
But in a way, it proved her point about the ratings,
didn't it? Ironically, yes. ABC News reported
that those specific arguments, that period of
intense conflict, gave The View its best ratings
ever. Conflict sells. She did eventually return
years later. Briefly. Fall of 2014. New panel
with Whoopi Goldberg, Rosie Perez, Nicole Wallace.
But it didn't last long that time either. No,
only about five months. She left again in February
2015. Cited health reasons, personal issues,
maybe the fire wasn't there, or maybe that format
just wasn't right for her anymore. So, okay,
conflict seems to be the theme, both on screen
and off. When she stepped away from hosting,
she poured that same intensity into other ventures,
right? business, philanthropy. Yeah, and with
pretty mixed results. You see this pattern of
really ambitious projects, some marked by spectacular
failures and legal fights, and others by incredible
dedication and success, usually tied to her personal
passions. The Rosie Magazine venture is a prime
example of the former, isn't it? Yeah. Launched
in 2000. Right. Partnered with the publishers
of McCall's. The idea was to directly compete
with Oprah's O Magazine, which was massive. And
it started well. Strong launch, yeah. Circulation
hit like 3 .5 million, but the partnerships just
imploded fast. Over what? Control. Specifically,
editorial control. Rosie wanted final say. The
publishers resisted. Classic power struggle.
She quit in 2002, only two years in. And then
came the lawsuits. Oh, yeah. Both sides sued
each other for breach of contract. It went to
trial in 2003. Very public, very messy. And that
trial produced another one of those just... Jaw
-dropping rosy moment. The cancer comment, yeah.
Under cross -examination, talking to a former
colleague who happened to be a breast cancer
survivor. She said... What was it exactly? She
told her essentially that people who lie get
sick and they get cancer. Oh my God. Linking
lying to cancer to a survivor's face in open
court. Just an unbelievable lapse. She apologized
the next day, said it came from her own trauma
around her mother's death from cancer, but...
The damage was immense. How did the lawsuit end?
The judge eventually threw the whole thing out,
dismissed both cases, said neither side deserved
damages, basically called the whole venture a
wash, a failure on both sides. Okay, so that
was one big swing and a miss. What about Taboo,
the musical? Another passion project. She brought
that Boy George musical to Broadway in 2003,
championed it heavily, put her own money in.
But it didn't fare well commercially either.
No, mostly bad reviews. Closed pretty quickly
in 2004 after only about 100 performances. A
financial disappointment for her. But here's
where you see the other side of the pattern,
maybe. Her reaction to Taboo's failure was different.
Totally different. Despite losing money and getting
panned, Rosie called producing Taboo the most
fulfilling experience of her entire career. So
the fulfillment came from the act of creation,
the passion, not necessarily the commercial success
or lack of conflict. Seems like it. When her
ventures failed, it was often about business
disputes or market realities. When they succeeded
or when she felt fulfilled, it was because they
aligned with her core values and activism. Which
leads us perfectly to Our Family Vacation. Exactly.
Co -founded in 2003, and the mission was crystal
clear. Deeply personal for her. Providing the
very first all gay and lesbian family vacation
packages. Revolutionary at the time. The first
cruise they did in 2004 had 1 ,600 passengers,
including 600 kids. It was about creating a safe,
affirming space. More than just a vacation, right?
They tackled issues. Yeah. Held discussions about
adoption, surrogacy, things that were still really
challenging for LGBTQ families to navigate openly
back then. She wasn't just talking about support.
She was building the infrastructure. for it using
her resources and her philanthropy goes way beyond
that one venture the scale is huge immense remember
her memoir find me from 2002 she took the entire
three million dollar advance from that book three
million dollars and used it to start her for
all kids foundation which according to sources
has given out over 22 million dollars in grants
since then Wow and she had some creative fundraising
methods too huh Yeah, the Listerine story is
classic Rosie. Apparently, Scope, a Listerine
competitor, ran some ad calling her unkissable
or something like that. Okay. So instead of just
getting mad, she partnered with Listerine. They
agreed to donate $1 ,000 to her foundation every
single time a guest kissed her on the Rosie O'Donnell
show. No way. That's brilliant. Turning an insult
into cash for charity. Totally. Raise over $350
,000 just from that one stunt. And overall, the
giving is substantial. Sources report she's donated
well over $100 million in total throughout her
career. Including putting a massive chunk of
money from one contract straight into a trust.
Yeah, $50 million from a five -year contract,
put it into an irrevocable trust just for charitable
giving. Whatever else you say about her, her
financial commitment to her causes is undeniable.
Shifting gears a bit, let's talk about her health.
Because the sources draw a direct line from that
early trauma we discussed to her ongoing struggles,
both mental and physical. It's a through line,
yeah. She's been open about dealing with major
depressive disorder, PTSD, severe anxiety. And
she explicitly connects it back. Yes. She's publicly
attributed her mental health issues and also
body image struggles directly to the sexual abuse
she suffered from her father as a child. That
armor of comedy, like we said. It covered the
wounds but didn't heal them. Seems that way.
And physically, she's had some serious scares,
too. There was a bad staph infection back in
2000. Almost lost her hand, apparently. But the
big one was the heart attack in 2012. Yeah, August
2012. Found out she had a major artery, the widow
maker, 99 % blocked. needed a stent immediately.
That sounds like a massive wake -up call. Absolutely.
It prompted a complete lifestyle overhaul. She
became a big advocate for preventative heart
health, adopted a strict whole foods, plant -based
diet following Dr. Esselstyn's work. She stuck
with that. Seems so, though she also manages
type 2 diabetes. But that heart attack was a
clear turning point in focusing on her physical
health. And we also see her mental health intersecting
with the political climate later on. The sources
mentioned struggles with alcohol. Yeah, she'd
given up drinking back in 2008, partly for weight
loss. But she revealed that after the 2016 election
with Trump winning. The old adversary. Right.
She said she became very depressed and started
over drinking again as a way to cope with that
political reality. A stark reminder of how intertwined
her personal well -being in the political world.
That intertwining of the personal and political
is really evident in her family life, too, isn't
it? Her relationships, her kids, it's all bound
up with her activism. Absolutely. She adopted
her first son, Parker, way back in 1995, even
before the talk show really took off. He later
went to Valley Forge Military Academy, interestingly
enough. And her first marriage. to Kelly Carpenter
in 2004, that wasn't just a private ceremony.
No, it was a deliberate political statement.
They got married in San Francisco during that
brief period when Mayor Gavin Newsom was issuing
licenses to same -sex couples. Specifically as
a challenge to George W. Bush. Explicitly, defiance
against his push for a constitutional amendment
banning gay marriage, using her wedding as activism.
But that marriage didn't legally stand for long,
did it? No, the California Supreme Court nullified
those marriages later that same year. Rosie and
Kelly separated in 2007. Her second marriage
was to Michelle Rounds. Yes, married in 2012.
They adopted a daughter, Dakota, together, but
they divorced in 2015. And then, very sadly,
Michelle Rounds died by suicide in 2017. Just
layers of difficulty and tragedy there. Which
brings us to maybe the most difficult recent
development involving her daughter, Chelsea.
Yeah, this is tough stuff. And it really seems
to highlight the... ongoing impact of that generational
trauma we talked about earlier. People might
remember Chelsea went missing for a time back
in 2015 that made headlines. But the situation
described in late 2024 sources is. Much more
serious. Extremely serious. Arrests in Marinette
County, Wisconsin. The charges listed are harrowing.
Child neglect, domestic abuse, maintaining a
drug trafficking facility, meth possession, illegally
getting prescriptions, THC possession. And the
reported details about the conditions where her
own child, Rosie's grandchild, was found. Just
awful. The sources mention crack pipes, feces,
and garbage in the house where the 11 -month
-old was living. It's a devastating picture.
Suggests that cycle of trauma, addiction, instability.
It's continuing despite Rosie's fame and resources.
A deeply private struggle playing out in the
most public way imaginable. And it's against
this backdrop of personal crisis that Rosie makes
her biggest political statement yet. The move
to Ireland. Expatriation. Right. March 2025.
Yeah. Just a couple of months after Donald Trump's
second inauguration. She announces she had actually
moved to Ireland two months prior with her younger
child, Clay. And her reasoning was explicitly
political. She cited heartbreak despair over
the U .S. political direction, said they felt
they needed to take care of ourselves and make
some hard decisions. A complete physical disengagement
for the American political scene she'd been so
central to for decades. And she's making it official,
right? Applying for citizenship. Yes, through
dissent. Leveraging her father's roots, remember
Edward Joseph O'Donnell from County Donegal.
Ah, there it is. Full circle. Using that heritage
to find a new home. Initially rented near Dublin
in Halth, but then moved. Yeah, sources say she
moved to Sandymount, another Dublin coastal suburb.
The reason given was very practical, very personal.
Finding a special school for her daughter, Dakota,
who is autistic. So seeking refuge, seeking support
for her family. But even across the Atlantic,
the conflict found her. Of course it did. In
July 2025, who weighs in but former President
Trump? Naturally. Publicly threatening to try
and revoke her U .S. birthright citizenship because
she left and criticized him. It's almost surreal.
Even in self -imposed exile, that defining feud,
that conflict she was so much a part of, continues
to shape her story. Hashtag tag tag seven, conclusion
and provocative thought. So when you pull back
and look at the whole arc. these four decades.
It really is a story of extremes, isn't it? Molded
by that intense early trauma, the loss, the abuse.
Which maybe necessitated the creation of that
first public persona, the queen of nice, that
friendly, funny armor. Yeah, but that armor got
shed pretty quickly, didn't it? Swapped for the
heavy artillery of the political activist, the
commentator. And she wielded that platform with
real conviction on issues she cared about. LGBTQ
adoption rights, gun control. pouring huge amounts
of her own money, over $100 million, into backing
those causes. Her successes often came from that
place of care. Definitely. Yet, at the same time,
she engaged in rhetoric that was undeniably inflammatory,
often seemed ill -considered, even reckless.
The comments about the Catholic Church, the cancer
comment during the trial, the 9 -11 steal comments.
She didn't just participate in conflict TV, she
arguably helped pioneer it on daytime. Those
arguments on The View, especially with Hasselbeck,
became must -see TV precisely because they were
so explosive. Ratings gold. She understood the
market for partisan conflict and she leaned into
it hard. Her later career absolutely thrived
on the heat, the friction, the debates she ignited.
She was a central figure in defining that divisive
tone in American culture. For decades. And now.
She's physically left, abandoned the arena, moved
to Ireland, citing political despair, needing
to protect herself and her family. Fleeing the
very climate she was instrumental in creating
and amplifying. Which brings us to our final
thought. Something for you, the listener, to
chew on, based on everything we've just laid
out from the sources. Yeah. Considering how much
of her later career was built on generating,
participating in, and frankly, benefiting from
public political conflict. Does a celebrity who
spent decades defining and thriving on that kind
of warfare shaping that very climate? Does she
then possess the right to simply step away, move
abroad, seek citizenship elsewhere, citing heartbreak
over the state of the country she herself helped
to shape? Is it a valid retreat or an abdication
of sorts? Something to think about.