Two pieces of sad news for Rosie O’Donnell: she’s leaving her co-host position on The View next week, and she’s split from her wife of almost three years, Michelle Rounds.
The couple quietly parted last fall, and Rosie has decided to leave The View again in order to focus on her children and her health.
O’Donnell’s rep, Cindi Berger, said in a statement to Us Weekly on Friday (Feb. 6, 2015):
I can confirm that Rosie and her wife Michelle split in November. Rosie has teens and an infant at home that need her attention. This has been a very stressful situation. She is putting her personal health and family first. ABC has been wonderfully understanding and supportive of her personal decision to leave The View. Next week will be her last.
ABC also confirmed O’Donnell’s departure in a statement:
Rosie is an immensely talented star who comes in each and every morning brimming with ideas, excitement and passion for the show. When she told us she wanted to exit The View, we respected and understood her desire to put her well-being and her family first. We’re delighted she’s still part of the ABC family with upcoming guest appearances on The Fosters, and we know she’ll return to The View often with her unique point of view and updates on her work and her family.
Page Six was first to report that O’Donnell is stepping down in order to focus on the well-being of her family. Sources told them her and Rounds, her second wife, have been living separately for months.
O’Donnell, 52, has five children, one of whom (baby Dakota) she adopted with Rounds in 2013. She has three children with first wife Kelli Carpenter, and one older son, Parker, whom she adopted in 1995.
O’Donnell returned to the aging daytime talk show last fall (September 2014), after her crazy exit in 2007 spiraling from an on-air fight with fellow co-host Elizabeth Hasselbeck (an episode which will forever be embedded in The View‘s history).
According to The Hollywood Reporter, there has also been much behind-the-scenes tension between O’Donnell and co-host Whoopi Goldberg.
On Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14, 2015), O’Donnell will be debuting “A Heartfelt Stand Up,” an HBO documentary special about her near-fatal heart attack in 2012.
[Page Six]
