At 61, Rosie O'Donnell Embraces Her Life's Third Chapter As A Grandma Witnessing Her 5 Children Live Their Lives

Mar 31, 2023

Rosie O'Donnell confessed that she's enjoying turning older. After celebrating her 61st birthday on March 21, 2023, the comedian said that the physical process of aging keeps surprising her, but she appreciates that she's still around to relish in her new role as a grandmother and watch her children navigate their lives.

"The Flinstones" actress could not help but compare her life to her mother, Roseann Teresa Murtha, who died young at 39 years old and never saw how her children turned out. O'Donnell used to think that her life would also be over when she turned 40. Born in Long Island, New York, O'Donnel was just ten years old when she lost her mom. She believed that the loss defined the path she chose for the rest of her life. 

In 1995, the actress adopted her first child, Parker Jaren, with then-partner Kelli Carpenter, a TV producer. However, O'Donnell didn't publicly come out as a lesbian until 2002. After Parker came into their lives, O'Donnell and Carpenter adopted two three more kids together: Chelsea, born in 1997; Blake, born in 1999; and Vivienne, born in 2002.  

The couple then got married in 2004 in San Francisco, but despite their long years together, O'Donnell and Carpenter separated in 2007. Amid their complicated life, O'Donnell co-parented her four kids with Carpenter.

In 2011, O'Donnell started dating an executive consultant, Michelle Rounds, and they were married the following year. By 2013, the pair announced that they had adopted Dakota, O'Donnell's fifth child. However, two years after their marriage, O'Donnell filed for divorce and gained full custody of her youngest child. In 2017, Rounds, who remarried, died by suicide at 46 years old. She left behind a wife and a child. 

In an exclusive with Entertainment Tonight, O'Donnell reflected on her life as she turned 61 years old on March 21, 2023. The actress exclaimed that aging is "just wonderful," and she even managed to joke about it. 

"Sometimes I look in the mirror [or] I catch a glimpse and I go, 'Oh, there's an old lady! Oh, no, it's me,'" O'Donnell said but added, "I'm glad I have the opportunity to grow up and to be here for my kids and to get to enjoy life, because of all the immense gifts that I've been given."

O'Donnell also shared that Parker has left the Marines and moved on to making "Warhammer" models for work, the game he loved as a kid. Blake got engaged in December 2022 to his longtime girlfriend. Viviene is a dean's lister in college, and Chelsea, with whom the actress has had public spats in the past, is a mom of three, and O'Donnell could not help but gush over her grandchildren.

"It's hard to believe and it's hard to not, you know, steal them and just take them home with me and go, 'You know what? They're mine now!'"

For years, O'Donnell was estranged from Chelsea when she decided to be with her birth mother. However, a reconciliation took place in 2018 after Chelsea became pregnant with her first child.  

With everything that she has been through, O'Donnell said that she's putting the past behind her and starting the third chapter of her life by making a lot of memories of growing older via her new podcast, "Onward." O'Donnell's youngest, Dakota, expressed hope she'd become part of her mother's podcast one day. Dakota has autism but is "very verbal," her mother said.

What can you say about Rosie O'Donnell's new focus as a grandmother who feels blessed to see her grown-up kids making something of their lives? Do you know someone who can relate to her story? Pass this story along to them!