By Zoe Papadakis
Tuesday, July 21, 2026
Comedian Rosie O’Donnell plans to return to the United States and establish a home in New Jersey near her children after moving to Ireland in 2025 with her child, Clay O’Donnell, citing President Donald Trump as the reason for her departure.
Speaking Friday on Sophia Bush’s podcast “Work in Progress,” Rosie O’Donnell said family ties are drawing her back after selling her American possessions.
The decision follows the March birth of grandson Anthony O’Donnell.
“I sold everything before I left, and so I’m hoping to get a place in New Jersey near my kids so that I could, when I’m home, we can have a home base here as well,” Rosie O’Donnell told Bush. “So I’m planning on doing that.”
The decision coincides with her return to New York to perform her one-woman show, “Common Knowledge.”
“It feels good and familiar,” she said of being back in the city. “It also feels very loud. I feel a little bit more anxiety.”
O’Donnell previously moved abroad after Trump’s second term began, citing political reasons on social media.
“Although I was never someone who thought I would move to another country, that’s what I decided would be best for myself and my 12-year-old child,” she said at the time.
In the video, O’Donnell admitted that “it’s been heartbreaking to see what’s happening politically” as well as being hard on her “personally.”
She noted she would return “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America.”
Addressing her timeline in Ireland, O’Donnell told Bush, “It really does depend on what happens politically in the country and if I feel mentally healthy enough to battle those demons.”
“Some days I feel very strong and other days I feel like, ‘Oh boy, this is a lot,’” she continued. “[Trump] bombards you. He’s always doing something. You can’t even watch the soccer game — he ruins everything, in my opinion.”
To protect her mental health, O’Donnell removed U.S. news channels, watching only Irish and English stations.
“I am so much calmer for it,” she said.
“I can’t tell you the difference that it makes for my mental health and my happiness level,” she continued. “Because it’s very, very hard to experience joy when you’re in the thick of the [Jeffrey] Epstein library; when you’re in the thick of that young boy who was left on the island by friends; that you can’t believe what the Supreme Court is doing, and doing boldly in front of everyone. Is he going to let us have elections? That’s my big question.”
