O'Donnell's support for the convicted murderer goes back to the mid-'90s, but they wouldn't meet until decades later.

"For the first time in my life, I felt safe enough to trust and be vulnerable and love a straight man," O'Donnell said of Menendez Rosie O’Donnell revealed that she has a surprising friendship with the convicted murderer Lyle Menendez in a new interviewMenendez was convicted of first-degree murder with his brother Erik Menendez for the 1989 fatal shooting of their parentsO'Donnell previously expressed her belief that the brothers' actions were a result of self-defense during a 1996 appearance on Larry King LiveRosie O’Donnell is opening up about an unlikely friendship.

They began talking in 2022, after the convicted killer's wife reached out to O'Donnell to ask if she'd want to speak with him. Their first phone call lasted three hours.