It’s true! Rosie O’Donnell confirmed that she is engaged to police officer Elizabeth Rooney.
The Emmy winner, 56, revealed to Us Weekly exclusively at her Rosie’s Theater Kids Gala in New York City on Monday, October 22, that she and her fiancée, 33, are a “long way off” from setting a date for their wedding.
“I have a 5-year-old with autism [daughter Dakota] and we have a routine going, the two of us,” O’Donnell explained. “Elizabeth comes every five days and stays for a few days. It’s kind of a great, slow process where [Dakota] does say, ‘I have two brothers and two sisters and two mommies.’ So she’s kind of in the vibe of it, but you know when you have a kid with special needs like that, you try to go in a little bit of a different place. So we both agree that [holding off on wedding plans] would be best for everyone.”
Later on Monday, Rooney shared a photo of her huge engagement ring on Instagram.
The former View cohost and Rooney met at a theater benefit in 2016, but did not start dating until a year later. Radar Online was first to report the news of the couple’s engagement earlier this month.
O’Donnell gushed over Rooney’s good looks while celebrating the 15th anniversary of her educational organization on Monday night. “I tell her, ‘You look amazing, you always look amazing,’” she told Us. “But she is, most of the time, in sweatpants in my house and her Worcester Police Department sweatshirt, so she doesn’t look like this every day, but believe me, she knows how to clean up well.”
The comedian also has a lot of respect for her love’s job. “I always appreciated cops. I grew up in a blue-collar neighborhood,” she told Us. “To me, she just proves how amazing she is every day. … She patrols the streets on a horse. Not only is she a kick-ass cop, she’s on a horse doing it, so she’s pretty astounding.”
O’Donnell was previously married to Kelli Carpenter from 2004 to 2007, and the late Michelle Rounds from 2012 to 2016. In addition to Dakota (her daughter with Rounds), the TV host shares Parker, 23, Chelsea, 21, Blake, 18, and Vivienne, 15, with Carpenter.
The activist was once estranged from Chelsea, who ran away from their home in 2015 and is now expecting her first child with her boyfriend, Jacob Bourassa. O’Donnell told Us that her relationship with Chelsea is much better these days.
“It’s a work in progress,” she admitted. “She’s a lovely girl who got dealt a bad hand in some ways and she’s working really hard on herself and finding forgiveness in herself. … She’s a wonderful young woman and I love her very much.”
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With reporting by Nicki Gostin
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