Rosie O’Donnell compares being gay to eye color on Poehler podcast

Actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell told podcast host Amy Poehler that being gay is a “doomed” existence nobody would choose, comparing it to being left-handed or having blue eyes. 

Ms. O’Donnell made the remarks on a recent episode of “Good Hang With Amy Poehler,” the Ringer/Spotify podcast hosted by the former “Saturday Night Live” star. The two discussed Ms. O’Donnell’s one-woman show, “Common Knowledge,” and her decades in show business.

During the conversation, Ms. O’Donnell recalled mourning the death of an early girlfriend, identified only as Corby, and said her family never acknowledged her grief at the time.

“Nobody said, ’Are you okay?’ And that is very, very isolating and lonely,” Ms. O’Donnell said. 

“My family didn’t want to hear about it,” she continued. “Even though they knew I was living with her, and they knew that now I wasn’t. No one brought it up. Nobody said, ‘Are you OK?’ And that is very, very isolating and lonely. And it makes you feel that you’re sort of doomed by being gay, which is no different than being left-handed or having blue eyes. Like, you people don’t choose it. Who would choose it? It’s not an easy life, but it’s a true life if you know that that’s who you are, you know?”

During the podcast, Ms. Poehler praised Ms. O’Donnell for referring to her 13-year-old nonbinary child, Clay, as “they/them,” calling it “really beautiful.”

The episode arrived amid Ms. O’Donnell’s on-again, off-again presence in the U.S. since relocating to Ireland in January 2025 following President Trump’s reelection, citing the political climate in the U.S. She has returned briefly at least twice since, including a June appearance at the Tony Awards, even as Mr. Trump has twice threatened, without legal basis, to revoke her U.S. citizenship.