Rosie O'Donnell dishes on her hostile relationship with fellow Trump-hater Jimmy Kimmel and says they've NEVER spoken to one another... as she prepares to take over his late night show

Rosie O'Donnell has revealed her fractious relationship with Jimmy Kimmel as she prepares to temporarily take over his late night show.

Kimmel, 58, is currently taking a two-month vacation, and O'Donnell, 64, has been invited to be one of the stand-ins for the star, filling in on his ABC program this week.

O'Donnell claims Kimmel's offer 'came out of the blue', and she described it as a 'surprise' given that they've never spoken in person and had always ignored each other at events.  

'Howard Stern tried to make amends with us, so we've been at the same parties a few times and I would talk to [Kimmel's] wife [Molly McNearney],' she told Variety on Monday. 'But Jimmy was never a fan of mine.'

'And it was kind of an adversarial relationship,' she continued. 'Not that I was fighting back, but I was like, "OK, one of the bro guys..."' 

Even to this day, O'Donnell claims that that the pair have 'never spoken on the phone'.

 'When my publicist called and said, "Do you want to guest host Kimmel for a week?" I said, "I haven't ever even been a guest!" O'Donnell told Variety. 'And then I said, "If you're positive that that's an actual offer and he wants me to do it, then I most certainly will.'

'I was surprised, to tell you the truth, and very thankful,' she added.

Kimmel previously said he would be bringing on O'Donnell as a 'special treat' for Donald Trump as he referenced the president's decades-long feud with her. 

O'Donnell told Variety she also accepted Kimmel's offer to address Trump's vendetta against her and support the community of late night talk show hosts amid the president's war on TV comedy. 

Referencing how Kimmel was almost ousted from ABC late night talk show over controversial Charlie Kirk comments last year, she said: 'I support [Jimmy] in what he's doing with the First Amendment, and our ability as entertainers and citizens to speak out against our government that's enshrined in the Founding Fathers' writings about our government, so I think he's fantastic.' 

She continued: 'And I wish that Stephen Colbert had the same kind of support when it happened to him, because he shouldn't be gone either.' 

Kimmel's late night show was taken off the air by ABC for six days in September 2025 following backlash and FCC pressure over his monologue about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Meanwhile, Colbert's 11-year run as host of the Late Show ended in May in what many believe was a move by CBS to appease Trump.

O'Donnell also addressed Paramount CEO David Ellison's pending takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, which includes CBS and CNN. 

'It would be like Fox taking over all news channels. Imagine if Fox was not one outlier and Fox was the mainstay? That's what's happening with Hollywood now and the Ellisons, and it's tragic,' she said. 

O'Donnell also criticized Ellison and Bari Weiss' conservative makeover of CBS News and 60 Minutes even prior to the pending $111 billion mega-merger. 

'Look at what's happened to CBS News and 60 Minutes, which was the gold star of their entire network, and they blew it up,' O'Donnell claimed before criticizing Weiss, the succeeding editor-in-chief of CBS News. 

'This Bari Weiss person, I don't know how she can live with herself. There are people who are sidling up to him and history will record all of their names, what they did, and who they stood next to.' 

O'Donnell gave a taste of her upcoming guest host stint as she concluded: 'If you're in a room with 10 Nazis at a table and you're the only one who's not, there's a pretty good chance you're a Nazi.'