Rosie O’Donnell opened up about the surprising bond that she has formed with convicted killer Lyle Menendez.
Lyle, 57, and his brother Erik Menedez, 54, are currently incarcerated in San Diego, where they are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole after they were convicted in 1996 of murdering their parents, Jose and Mary “Kitty” Menendez, in 1989.
During an interview with the New York Times published Saturday, O’Donnell, 63, shared details about her friendship with Lyle and how they have been communicating while he remains behind bars.
“He started calling me on a regular basis from the tablet phone thing they have,” she 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.”
While speaking with the New York Times, O’Donnell shared that her relationship with Lyle began during the Menendez brothers’ trial in 1996.
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Defense attorneys for Lyle and Erik argued that the brothers had killed Jose and Kitty in self-defense after suffering years of abuse and molestation by their parents.
O’Donnell recalled that she appeared on a 1996 episode of “Larry King Live,” where she said she believed the brothers’ defense.
The former talk show host told the NYT that Lyle sent her a letter after her interview on “Larry King Live.” In the letter, Lyle “thanked her for her support and stated his belief that she ‘knew’ from a personal place that what he was saying was true.”
O’Donnell told the NYT that it was her own personal experience that led her to believe the Menendez brothers as she alleged “she and her siblings had been molested by their father.”
However, O’Donnell said that she never responded to Lyle’s letter.
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“At that point, I had not ventured anywhere near this in my family or in my therapy,” she told the NYT.
Years later, O’Donnell and Lyle reconnected after she watched a 2022 documentary that included new evidence supporting the Menendez brothers’ story.
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O’Donnell discussed the case during a TikTok video in which she once again defended the brothers. Afterward, Lyle’s wife Rebecca Sneed contacted her to “see if she was interested in speaking with him.”
Lyle and O’Donnell then had their first phone call, which the comedian said “lasted two or three hours,” and they have regularly stayed in touch since then.
O’Donnell admitted that some of her friends have “expressed concern” about her unlikely relationship with Lyle.
She told the NYT that she “shrugged” when her friends told her “‘‘Ro, he’s a murderer'” and instead went to visit Lyle in prison.
During her visit, Lyle informed her about a program in which he and his fellow prison inmates help train and place dogs with blind, disabled veterans and children who have been diagnosed with autism.
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At Lyle’s suggestion, O’Donnell decided to get a dog through the program for her 12-year-old son Clay, who is autistic. She “spent two weeks commuting daily to the prison” before bringing home a Labrador mix named Kuma, who had been trained by an inmate serving time for armed robbery.
“I noticed the difference in Clay immediately,” she told the NYT. “I was shocked to find out that all the stories I heard from other mothers of autistic children were true.”
The experience inspired O’Donnell to film a documentary about the program, titled “Unleashing Hope: The Power of Service Dogs for Autism,” which will debut on Hulu on April 22.
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