Rosie O’Donnell Revealed Her “Safe” Friendship With Convicted Murderer Lyle Menendez

This story contains discussion of sexual abuse and child abuse.

And this is Lyle Menendez, who was convicted in 1996 alongside his brother Erik Menendez of murdering his parents in 1989.

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If you watched last year’s Netflix hit Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, you probably know that Lyle and Erik have alleged that their murders followed years of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse at the hands of their parents.

In a new interview with the New York Times, Rosie revealed that she became in contact with Lyle in 1996, after she expressed support for the Menendez brothers’ abuse claims during an episode of Larry King Live and Lyle wrote a letter from jail thanking her for the sentiment.

In the NYT interview, Rosie also alleged that she’d been molested by her father along with her siblings, and that Lyle — without knowing her own personal history — said she “knew” that he was telling the truth. “At that point, I had not ventured anywhere near this in my family or in my therapy,” she said.

Rosie specified that she initially did not respond to him — but after discussing the Menendez brothers’ case on TikTok in 2022, Lyle’s wife Rebecca Sneed reached out to her to see if Rosie would be interested in talking to him. Their first conversation, Rosie revealed, lasted two or three hours.

“Then he started calling me on a regular basis from the tablet phone thing they have,” Rosie said. “He would tell me about his life, what he’s been doing in prison and, for the first time in my life, I felt safe enough to trust and be vulnerable and love a straight man.”

Rosie also said that her friends expressed trepidation about her speaking with Lyle — “They were like, ‘Ro, he’s a murderer,'” she recalls — but she eventually visited him in prison anyway, which led her to learn about the Guide Dogs of America program, in which prisoners train dogs to be companions for blind, disabled veterans and autistic children.

After applying for the program, Rosie was eventually approved for a dog for her child Clay, who is autistic. “I noticed the difference in Clay immediately,” Rosie said about bringing the dog home with her. “I was shocked to find out that all the stories I heard from other mothers of autistic children were true.”

You can read the entire interview with Rosie here.

If you are concerned that a child is experiencing or may be in danger of abuse, you can call or text the National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453 (4.A.CHILD); service can be provided in over 140 languages.

If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673), which routes the caller to their nearest sexual assault service provider. You can also search for your local center here.