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O’Donnell opens up about relationship troubles

On “The Howard Stern Show,” Rosie O’Donnell talked publicly for the first time about her relationship troubles with partner Kelli Carpenter and about Oprah Winfrey and the gay rumors.
/ Source: Access Hollywood

In a candid new interview on “The Howard Stern Show,” Rosie O’Donnell opened up publicly for the first time about her relationship troubles with partner Kelli Carpenter, took aim at “Late Show” host David Letterman and talked about TV talk queen Oprah Winfrey and the gay rumors.

During her interview on Stern’s Sirius XM show, the shock jock asked O’Donnell about why rumors exist that Winfrey could be gay.

“I don’t know. I think she’s never been married and she’s exceptionally close to Gayle [King],” O’Donnell, who was promoting her own Sirius XM show, “Rosie Radio,” which stars next Monday, said. “I don’t know that she and Gayle are necessarily doing each other but I think they are the emotional equivalent of …”

“A gay couple,” Stern chimed in.

“When they did that road trip, that’s as gay as it gets,” O’Donnell said. “And I don’t mean it to be an insult either. I’m just saying, listen, if you ask me, that’s the couple.”

Winfrey and King have long denied the rumors.

As far as her own personal life, O’Donnell also spoke openly about her the recent reports of a split with Carpenter, her longtime partner.

“We’re working things out,” O’Donnell noted. “We’re trying.”

O’Donnell said she and her partner of 12 years, both of them loving parents to their four children, are making some big decisions presently.

“We have come to a point where we are seeing [if] what will make everyone happiest is maybe to not live together, but continue to parent,” O’Donnell told Stern. “We have different styles of living. I’m very messy. She’s very not.”

“I thought you two we’re going to make it,” Stern’s sidekick, Robin Quivers, said.

“I did too, honey,” O’Donnell replied.

During the interview, O’Donnell seemed to suggest she and Carpenter are at a crossroads.

“I don’t know that we’re going to be together,” she said. “I think we’re working through what’s best for all of us.”

Oprah Winfrey

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Oprah Winfrey

From film star to media mogul, Oprah Winfrey has built an empire and secured a legion of devoted fans.

O’Donnell and Carpenter married in San Francisco in February 2004, but their marriage was nullified by the state. After talking about their marriage ceremony, which was held alongside dozens of other gay couples over five years ago, O’Donnell said, while she and Carpenter are not legally married, they and their children are a family.

“We’ve been together for 12 years and a family is a family is a family,” she said. “Kelli and I are working through a lot of stuff that we have, and the children are the priority and we both continue to parent them and we will continue to parent them, and you don’t know what the future holds. I have to say I never expected to be in this position, and I don’t think she did either.”

Another revelation from O’Donnell’s time with Stern? Years ago, she had a chance to hook up with Angelina Jolie before Billy Bob Thornton and Brad Pitt.

“She ... gave me her phone number and we talked on the phone two or three times, but that was that,” O’Donnell revealed.

“There was a tentative plan to have dinner that never came through,” O’Donnell added. “I was a little afraid of her. She’s scary in a sexual kind of way. I have dreams about her a lot still.”

And O’Donnell also chimed in on David Letterman’s admitted affairs.

“Having been the Rosie O’Donnell of ‘The Rosie O’Donnell Show,’ it would be easy to do that to any intern at any time,” she said. “And I think it’s a gross abuse of power.”