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O'Donnell adopted her first child, Parker Jaren O'Donnell, as an infant in 1995.Later, Kelli Carpenter also adopted Parker. Parker is an aficionado of military history and in 2011 successfully lobbied his mother to send him to Valley Forge Military Academy
On February 26, 2004, O'Donnell married Carpenter, a former Nickelodeon marketing executive, in San Francisco two weeks after Mayor Gavin Newsom authorized the granting of marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Her decision to go to San Franciscio to marry Carpenter was seen as a show of defiance against then-President George W. Bush over his support for the Federal Marriage Amendment. She said in 2004, "We were both inspired to come here after the sitting President made the vile and hateful comments he made ... [O]ne thought ran through my mind on the plane out here – with Liberty and Social justice for all." The couple was married by San Francisco Treasurer Susan Leal, one of the city's highest ranking lesbian officials, and serenaded by the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. O'Donnell said during the trial over Rosie magazine she had decided to marry Carpenter, in part because even though they acted as spouses they legally were no closer than friends: "We applied for spousal privilege and were denied it by the state. As a result, everything that I said to Kelli, every letter that I wrote her, every e-mail, every correspondence and conversation was entered into the record ... I am now and will forever be a total proponent of gay marriage."
Carpenter and O'Donnell have four children together. In 2000, the family took in a foster child Mia (born in 1997), and announced intentions to adopt her. In 2001, the state of Florida removed Mia from their home, and O'Donnell has since worked extensively to bring an end to the Florida law prohibiting same-sex family adoption.
In mid-November 2009, O'Donnell disclosed that Carpenter had moved out of their home in 2007. Their marriage had ended in August 2004 when it was among the thousands voided by the California Supreme Court.
O'Donnell began dating 40-year-old executive-search consultant Michelle Rounds in mid-2011. On December 5, 2011, during a break in the taping of The Rosie Show, O'Donnell announced to her studio audience that she and Rounds were engaged. The two married in a private ceremony in New York on June 9, 2012. On January 9, 2013, the couple announced they had adopted a baby girl. In February 2015, O'Donnell filed for divorce from Rounds after two years of marriage. Their divorce was settled in October 2015. O'Donnell was awarded full custody of the child. Rounds died by suicide on September 15, 2017.
In August 2015, O'Donnell tweeted that her 17-year-old daughter, Chelsea, had gone missing from their Nyack, New York, home along with her therapy dog. Chelsea was found a week later in Barnegat, New Jersey.
In September 2024 Chelsea was arrested in Marinette County, Wisconsin on charges involving child neglect, domestic abuse, maintaining a drug trafficking facility, possession of methamphetamine, illegally obtaining prescriptions and drug paraphernalia, and misdemeanor possession of THC after her 11 month old child was found in a house filled with crack pipes, feces and garbage. In October 2024, Chelsea was again arrested, this time in Oconto County, and soon afterwards charged with bail jumping, felony possession of methamphetamine and narcotic drugs, and misdemeanor counts involving possession of drug paraphernalia and resisting or obstructing an officer. In November 2024, Chelsea was arrested for a third time in Wisconsin, this time in Marinette County, on two felony counts of bail jumping, two felony counts of possession of methamphetamine, and a felony count of possession of narcotic drugs.
Health
In the summer of 2000, O'Donnell suffered a staph infection after she accidentally cut the middle finger of her left hand with a knife while cutting a price tag off a fishing pole. The infection incapacitated her for weeks and nearly resulted in doctors amputating her hand. She later quipped that George W. Bush was to blame for the infection, saying that she was preparing to go on a fishing trip at the time to avoid seeing Bush on television during the then-ongoing 2000 Republican National Convention. [61] O'Donnell has acknowledged her struggles with recurrent major depressive episodes during the fall and winter months consistent with seasonal affective disorder.
O'Donnell suffered a heart attack in mid-August 2012. She said an artery was 99 percent blocked and a stent was inserted. She later revealed on Twitter that to reverse her heart disease, she would espouse the whole-foods, plant-based diet promoted by Caldwell Esselstyn.
Rosie O'Donnell Tells the Origin Story of Her Feud with Donald Trump
