Rosie O'Donnell

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – Comedian, actress, talk show host, philanthropist, gay rights activist and mother to four kids, Rosie O’Donnell is no stranger to controversy.
Her strong personality and liberal views often tend to polarize Americans. But O’Donnell is showing off her softer side in a TV documentary playing throughout February on HBO about the many different types of families in modern America — including her own.
O’Donnell, 47, talked to Reuters about the making of “A Family Is a Family Is a Family”, her affection for children, dislike of bras and make-up, and the recent break-up of her long relationship with partner Kelli Carpenter.
Q: What did you learn from making this film?
A: “I learned that I love kids. To be around kids, for me there is nothing better. My youngest is 7 years-old now. It is heartbreaking. I miss that age. I really do. I’m thinking, ‘Dear Lord, is 47 too old to adopt another baby?’”
Q: Is that something that is on the horizon?
A: “It is always on the horizon. There is a lot of room on the raft, and if we could pull some kids out and put them on board, I am all for that.”
Q: The TV documentary includes home video of you and Kelli and your kids. Why did you decide to keep that section in after splitting up with Kelli some time ago?
A: “Kelli and I had been working on what kind of arrangement our family was going to proceed in for the last two and a half years. I never once thought to stop doing the documentary.
“It is different when gay people with children separate. It is not as dramatic as what you stereotypically think with heterosexuals, where one person walks out … It was more of a collaborative effort of how are we going to proceed and make sure of the most important thing, — which is that the emotional health, the heart and soul of these kids, remains intact. I think the greatest thing you can teach your child is how to deal with adversity because that’s what life is full of. Even though change is scary, sometimes it is necessary.”
Q: What do you think the reaction will be to the documentary?
A: “I haven’t had anyone tell me anything other than they love it. This is so kid positive. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t been moved by it.”
Q: Are you bothered by some of the negative comments made about you?
A: “I don’t really remember my life without entertainment and showbusiness and public opinion being part of it. To say it doesn’t hurt my feelings when someone says something horrible is a lie. But to say that it devastates me is an untruth. When you are a young kid and you dream of fame and fortune, you never think of that part of it.”
Q: What’s the biggest wrong impression other people have about you?
A: “I don’t know. I kind of speak about things before people are ready to talk about them.”
Q: You started a satellite radio show in November. How are you enjoying that?
A: “I love it. I get to do it at home. I get to have my friends around. I get to invite people I really want to talk to. And most important, there is no hair, no make-up and no bra! Those are the three best things you can offer me in a job.”
Q: What is the first thing you think about in the morning?
A: “Where the kids are. Who is up.”
from Reuters
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Tracy Kachtick-Anders & Rosie O'Donnell

Rosie O’Donnell is off the market!
The comedian and former TV talk show host – who in mid-November revealed that her longtime partner Kelli Carpenter moved out of their home two years ago – is now dating Tracy Kachtick-Anders, a Texas-based artist, O’Donnell’s rep confirms to PEOPLE.
The pair were spotted walking hand-in-hand in Miami Beach on Tuesday.
Last month, when asked if she was enjoying the single life, O’Donnell, 47, told PEOPLE, “I’m not. But on we grow, so to speak.”
And in October, in an interview with Examiner.com, Kachtick-Anders said, “Maybe for a future plan, I’d like a date with an inspiring woman!”
Like O’Donnell, Kachtick-Anders is active in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender parenting and adoption issues. She launched Open Arms Campaign, a non-profit organization to recruit and foster adoptive families that targets the LGBT community. “I have become an activist and work to educate everyone, not only about the plight of foster children,” she wrote on TheRainbowBabies.com, “but also the inequality that faces LGBT people in their quest to create families.” Kachtick-Anders has six children, five of whom are adopted, according to the Examiner.com.
O’Donnell, meanwhile, is gearing up for the airing on HBO in late January of A Family Is A Family Is A Family: A Rosie O’Donnell Celebration, a documentary that challenges the traditional ideas of family.
from People Magazine

Rosie O'Donnell & Kelli Carpenter

Rosie O’Donnell has confirmed to Lifeline Live that she and partner Kelli Carpenter, 42, are on the rocks.
In an interview at her Nyack, N.Y., compound Tuesday, USA TODAY’s Ann Oldenburg asked if the two had split — she has been hinting at it in her blog — and O’Donnell didn’t deny it, saying, “We’re a family. We will remain a family forever. And we are working on our issues.”
O’Donnell, 47, wouldn’t go into detail about whether Carpenter had moved out of their Nyack home and into Manhattan, as the National Enquirer reported in August. (She was not around during the interview.)
“We’re a family, we remain a family and we’re working on the issues,” O’Donnell reiterated, noting that there are four children whose well-being comes before anything.  The couple married in San Francisco in 2004 and have three adopted children — Parker, 14, Chelsea, 12 and Blake, 9, as well as Vivienne (“Vivi”), 6, whom Carpenter carried.
“They’re adorable and wonderful and they are by far a priority,” O’Donnell said. “Kelli and I love each other very much and we are working on our issues. Those are the only words I am ever going to say. Ever. And that is something that has been agreed upon by all parties,” she said, tears collecting in her eyes. “But everything’s fine and everybody’s good and we’re still both raising them together. We will both continue to parent them and we’re friendly and everything’s all right.”
from USA Today