Rosie O’Donnell Reveals She Recently Returned to the U.S. for Secret Visit 1 Year After Moving to Ireland

Rosie O’Donnell is sharing details about a recent, quiet return to the United States while she continues living in Ireland.

On Friday, Feb. 13, the 63-year-old comedian called into Chris Cuomo’s SiriusXM radio program, Cuomo Mornings, and said she recently traveled back to the U.S. without widely sharing her plans.

“I recently went home for two weeks and I did not really tell anyone. I just went to see my family,” O’Donnell said. “I wanted to see how hard it would be for me to get in and out of the country. I wanted to feel what it felt like.”

O’Donnell drew attention last year when she confirmed in a March 11, 2025, TikTok that she had moved to Ireland on Jan. 15 with her now-13-year-old child, Clay. In a follow-up video, she said her long-running conflict with President Donald Trump and changes made by the current administration were major factors in her decision to leave.

Even after relocating, O’Donnell said much of her family remains in the United States, and the recent visit was emotional and practical.

“I wanted to hold my children again,” she told Cuomo. “And I hadn’t been home in over a year. I also wanted to make sure that it was safe for me before I brought my daughter this summer, where we plan to spend the summertime off from her schooling here with my family.”

She added that one of her adult sons is expecting his first child, saying she’s “very excited” to be back around family. O’Donnell said she spent the last two weeks in New York, and described the experience as disorienting after stepping away from American news and entertainment for the past year.

“It felt like a very different country,” she said, explaining that she hasn’t been watching the news or American television and has been living somewhere “where celebrity worship does not exist.” She said her new life has brought “more balance.”

“I don’t regret leaving at all,” she said. “I think I did what I needed to do to save myself, my child and my sanity.”

Still, she said the atmosphere she felt during her trip was unsettling.

“The energy that I felt while in the United States… it was scary,” she said. “There’s a feeling that something is really wrong and no one is doing anything about it.”

Trump later referenced O’Donnell in a July 12, 2025, social media post in which he said he was “giving serious consideration” to revoking her U.S. citizenship.

O’Donnell responded on Instagram, writing that the president has “always hated” that she “see[s] him for who he is,” and said her move was tied to her opposition to him and what she believes he represents.