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Chelsea O’Donnell’s Biological Mother Denies She’s Mentally Ill: “There’s Nothing Wrong With Her”

Chelsea O'Donnell
Chelsea O'Donnell's biological mother denies Rosie O'Donnell's claims that Chelsea is mentally ill

Chelsea O’Donnell’s biological mother, Deanna Micoley, whom she recently reunited with, is denying that her daughter is mentally ill. In an interview with the Daily Mail, Micoley said that “there’s nothing wrong with her” and that she’s “doing great.”

Related: PHOTOS: Famous moms and daughters

Micoley’s interview comes after her daughter, whom Rosie O’Donnell adopted after Micoley gave her up in 1997 when she was just 20 years old, went missing for over a week. In a missing persons alert posted to her website on Aug. 18, Rosie wrote that Chelsea had “stopped taking her medicine and [was] in need of medical attention.” In a statement to Us Weekly prior to Chelsea being found, Rosie’s rep added: “Chelsea, like millions of people, lives with mental illness. It has been a difficult road for Chelsea and her family, and they just want her back safe.”

Micoley, however, claims that Chelsea, who recently turned 18, will benefit from a “quieter life” and that she doesn’t “want any more attention after everything with Rosie saying that she had a mental illness.” Chelsea herself tells the Daily Mail that “Everything is fine.”

The teen was found hours after Rosie posted the alert at the home of a 25-year-old she met on Tinder. Since then, Steven M. Sheerer has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child and the distribution of obscenity after he allegedly sent Chelsea nude photos. According to TMZ, Sheerer’s lawyers plan on blaming Tinder in court, arguing that due to the dating app’s settings, he assumed Chelsea, who was 17 at the time, was of legal age.

“Chelsea made a decision when she turned 18 that she wanted to go to her birth mother,” a rep for Rosie told Us Weekly. “This was her choice.” 

Related: PHOTOS: Stars in court

Rosie and her ex Kelli Carpenter share three other children in addition to Chelsea. The comedian is also mom to daughter Dakota with ex-wife Michelle Rounds.

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