American comedian and actress Rosie O'Donnell has revealed that her therapist urged her to step away from social media to escape her long-running and toxic feud with former US President Donald Trump. However, the 63-year-old found herself unable to follow the advice for more than a few hours.
The Failed Social Media Cleanse
In a new interview with The Washington Post, O'Donnell detailed how her therapist and longtime friend, Jeanne Kopetic, directly advised her to disconnect. "Roseann, you've got to detach. You've got to disconnect," Kopetic told her. O'Donnell, who moved to Ireland just five days before Trump's inauguration in January 2017, attempted to heed the warning but quickly relented.
The breaking point came when she saw a report that Trump had told Bloomberg reporter Catherine Lucey to be "quiet, piggy" during a question about the Epstein files. O'Donnell felt compelled to respond online, ending her brief detox. She later made a second plan to stay off social platforms for three days, which also concluded prematurely.
A Feud Spanning Nearly Two Decades
The very public war of words between O'Donnell and Trump is a fixture of modern American political culture. It began in 2006 when O'Donnell was a host on The View and has persisted largely through barbed exchanges on social media. The conflict escalated significantly after Trump entered the political arena.
Earlier this year, Trump took the extraordinary step of threatening to revoke O'Donnell's citizenship. On his Truth Social platform in September 2025, he wrote, "As previously mentioned, we are giving serious thought to taking away Rosie O'Donnell's Citizenship. She is not a Great American and is, in my opinion, incapable of being so!" He has previously labelled her a "threat to humanity."
Life in Ireland and a Healthier Future
Despite the ongoing online strife, O'Donnell maintains that relocating to Dublin with her youngest child, Clay, was the "healthiest and best decision" for her family. She stated in March 2025 that she feels healthier and sleeps better without the constant stress of American politics.
"It's not easy to move to another country, and we really felt as a family this was the safest and best thing for us to do," she explained. Her announcement that she was applying for Irish citizenship in October 2025 was met with a "joyful" statement from the White House, underscoring the political nature of their dispute.
O'Donnell expressed happiness with her life in Ireland but misses her other children and friends in the US. She has set a condition for any potential return, stating, "And when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America, that's when we will consider coming back."
