Late this summer, Rosie O'Donnell shared a frantic tweet requesting any information that might lead to the discovery of her daughter, Chelsea, who O'Donnell claimed had disappeared from the family home in Nyack, NY, along with her therapy dog, Bear.
The 18-year-old was found safe and sound shortly thereafter. But, now it seems as though the truth about why she was "missing" in the first place might be a little murky.
Chelsea gave an exclusive interview to the Daily Mail, released this week, claiming that she didn't actually run away. According to Chelsea, her famous mom kicked her out of the house two weeks shy of her 18th birthday. She also refuted her mom's claim that she was unstable at the time.
"I wouldn't say I'm mentally ill," Chelsea explained. "I would say lots of people struggle with what I have."
She went on to point out the discrepancy between her mother's public persona and who she is privately. "I find her not genuine a lot of the time. When we'd go out, she was a completely different person in public than at home, and I had a hard time with that," Chelsea told the Daily Mail. "It's like two different people."
"I feel she should be her real self, who she really is. She has this public persona; she will put this big smile on her face and try to be funny. She would always go up to people and want to hold their babies in public. She had this happy, friendly side to her."
Yet, Chelsea continued, "When we were home, even if it was on the same day, she would either just be in her room, not engaging with us, or watching documentaries." O'Donnell's daughter also added that her mom's "whole house" smells like weed.
As for the events leading up to Chelsea's alleged disappearance, the teen claims that Rosie told her she was being kicked out of the house in early August. According to her comments in the Daily Mail, Chelsea was asked to leave two weeks before her birthday, because Rosie was "aware" that her daughter wanted to move out on her own.
"Rosie said that I was almost 18, and she got all this crap from work, and she didn't want to have to deal with that at home, too," Chelsea told the outlet. "Rosie knew I was planning to leave," she added, "that's why I think she kicked me out."
Chelsea went on, "She asked me to talk about what was going on, and I didn't want to. So she asked for my phone and my computer. This was hours before she told me to leave. I gave them to her. A few hours later, she told me to leave. I wasn't planning to go until I turned 18 on the 24th."
Chelsea seemed determined to pull all the O'Donnell skeletons out of the closet for this one. Read the extensive interview in its entirety at the Daily Mail.
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