Rosie O’Donnell Admits To Shocking ‘Love’ Connection With Lyle Menendez

In a brand new interview, the 63-year-old comic and former discuss present host revealed that Menendez is the primary “straight man” she’s ever “beloved” and “trusted.”

In response to Rosie O’Donnell, their relationship has advanced by way of common cellphone calls and letters through the years.

“He began calling me frequently from the pill cellphone factor they’ve,” she shared with The New York Times. “He would inform me about his life, what he’s been doing in jail, and, for the primary time in my life, I felt protected sufficient to belief and be weak and love a straight man.”

Lyle was convicted alongside his youthful brother, Erik, for the 1989 murders of their dad and mom, José and Kitty Menendez. Each have been sentenced to life in jail with out parole, although they’re now in search of resentencing that might grant them instant eligibility for parole.

O’Donnell’s revelation comes at a pivotal time for the Menendez brothers, who’ve every served greater than 35 years behind bars. As reported by NBC News, on Friday, a Southern California decide gave the inexperienced gentle for a authorized evaluation that might end in new sentences. Los Angeles County Superior Courtroom Choose Michael Jesic denied a movement from the district legal professional’s workplace in search of to overturn a previous suggestion to cut back the brothers’ life sentences with out parole to 50 years to life.

With hearings scheduled for April 17 and 18, the end result might make each Lyle and Erik eligible for parole instantly.

O’Donnell’s connection to Lyle dates again to 1996, when she voiced her assist for the brothers throughout an look on “Larry King Reside.” On the time, she expressed perception of their claims that the murders have been dedicated in self-defense following years of alleged abuse.

Shortly after, Lyle despatched her a letter thanking her for standing up for them, although she didn’t reply initially, a choice rooted in her personal trauma. O’Donnell disclosed that “she and her siblings had been molested by their father,” and mentioned Lyle sensed that “she ‘knew’ from a private place that what he was saying was true.”

“At that time, I had not ventured wherever close to this in my household or in my remedy,” she instructed the Occasions.

It wasn’t till 2022, after she watched a documentary on the Menendez case and mentioned it on TikTok, that the 2 reconnected. Lyle’s spouse, Rebecca Sneed, reportedly reached out to see if O’Donnell can be all in favour of talking with him once more.

Their first cellphone dialog lasted three hours. Since then, the 2 have maintained a detailed friendship by way of common correspondence, and O’Donnell has even visited him in jail.

The Menendez brothers have been convicted of first-degree homicide following two separate trials within the Nineteen Nineties. They claimed the killings stemmed from years of abuse, saying Lyle confronted their father, an leisure government, concerning the alleged mistreatment of Erik and threatened to show him. In response to Lyle, his father’s response felt threatening.

Prosecutors have lengthy rejected the abuse allegations, arguing as a substitute that the murders have been calculated acts pushed by monetary acquire.

L.A. District Lawyer Nathan Hochman has acknowledged that the proof, a photocopy of an undated letter Erik claims to have despatched to a cousin in December 1988, fails to satisfy the authorized threshold vital for a decide to grant a brand new trial.

In February, Newsom ordered the state’s parole board to hold out a “threat evaluation” to find out if the brothers would pose a big menace to public security if launched. The findings are anticipated by June.