Amid the speculation surrounding her split from estranged wife Michelle Rounds, Rosie has now been accused of ‘stealing’ her adopted daughter.
The reports centre around Rosie’s daughter Chelsea, whom she adopted in 1997. Chelsea’s birth mother, Deanna Micoley, was battling substance addiction at the time, when she handed her baby over to the adoption agency.
Now, 37-year-old Deanna has shared her side of events with a number of media sources, saying that she was in “no condition” to be giving up her child, and claiming that O’Donnell 'stole' her from her.
In an interview with Radar Online, Deanna said: “I believe Rosie O’Donnell knew that I was in no condition to sign away my parental rights to my daughter. She did the worst thing one woman can do to another woman – take her child.”
She revealed that she found out where her daughter was last November, after Chelsea herself reached out to Deanna’s father.
The pair are said to have been communicating with each other via text messages and social media, but Deanna is now claiming that O’Donnell is preventing them from developing a relationship.
Commenting on the situation, O’Donnell’s spokeswoman Cindi Berger told the Enquirer that Rosie has “encouraged and supported Chelsea’s desire to communicate with her birth mother”, and branded Deanna’s decision to go public as “disappointing”.
Hitting back, Deanna told the publication: “O’Donnell stole my baby, but I don’t want her money. I just want my daughter back.”
