Rosie O’Donnell says convicted assassin Lyle Menendez is the primary straight man she ever cherished and trusted.
In a New York Occasions interview, the comic and former speak present host opened up about her bond with the self-admitted killer, who alongside together with his brother Erik, is presently serving life in jail for the 1989 homicide of their mother and father, José and Kitty Menendez.
O’Donnell and Menendez’s connection started lengthy earlier than they ever spoke.
The “Now and Then” actor first voiced assist for the Menendez brothers throughout a 1996 look on “Larry King Live,” the place she mentioned she believed the brothers’ declare that they have been survivors of their father’s sexual abuse and the murders have been an act of self-defense.
MICHAEL TRAN by way of Getty Photographs
Lyle wrote to O’Donnell after the present aired, thanking her for talking out and saying he “knew” his allegations resonated along with her due to her personal private expertise.
O’Donnell, who wouldn’t go public with allegations she and her siblings have been molested by her father till over 20 years later, instructed the Occasions she wasn’t prepared to answer Menendez on the time.
“At that point, I had not ventured anywhere near this in my family or in my therapy,” she defined.
However in 2022, she was impressed to advocate for the brothers as soon as once more after watching the Max documentary “Menendez: Monsters or Misjudged.”
After defending them in a TikTok video, Menendez’s then-wife, Rebecca Sneed, reached out and requested if O’Donnell could be open to speaking with Lyle Menendez instantly.
Their first cellphone name lasted two to a few hours, in accordance with O’Donnell, and a friendship shortly shaped.
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“He started calling me on a regular basis from the tablet phone thing they have,” O’Donnell mentioned. “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.”
The Menendez brothers have seen renewed public sympathy lately, notably following the discharge of Ryan Murphy’s true-crime sequence “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.” They’re anticipated to look in court docket subsequent week, the place a decide will resolve whether or not they need to be resentenced and eligible for launch.
