From 2006 to 2007, O'Donnell endured a controversial run as the moderator on the daytime talk show The View, which included a public feud with Donald Trump and on-air disputes regarding the Bush administration's policies with the Iraq War.

[3][4] Her parents were homemaker Roseann Teresa (née Murtha; 1934–1973) and Edward Joseph O'Donnell (1933–2015), an electrical engineer who worked in the defense industry.

O'Donnell made her feature film debut in A League of Their Own (1992) alongside Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, and Madonna, the latter of whom became a lifelong friend.

Throughout her career, she has taken on an eclectic range of roles: she appeared in Sleepless in Seattle as Meg Ryan's character's best friend; as Betty Rubble in the live-action film adaptation of The Flintstones with John Goodman, Elizabeth Perkins, and Rick Moranis; as one of Timothy Hutton's co-stars in Beautiful Girls; as a federal agent comedically paired with Dan Aykroyd in Exit to Eden; as the voice of a tomboyish female gorilla named Terk in Disney's Tarzan; and as a baseball-loving nun in M. Night Shyamalan's Wide Awake.

[12][13] The show proved very successful, winning multiple Emmy Awards,[14] and earning O'Donnell the title of "The Queen of Nice" for her style of light-hearted banter with her guests and interactions with the audience.

"[19][20] Ironically, O'Donnell at that time was a multi-million dollar paid spokesperson for 5 years for Kmart, which was the largest volume firearms retailer in the United States.

[21][22] Around the same time, the cast from Annie Get Your Gun was to appear on the show but refused O'Donnell's request to remove the line "I can shoot a partridge with a single cartridge" from the song "Anything You Can Do" and agreed to perform "My Defenses Are Down" instead.

[32] The show was the fourth-most-watched in all of daytime in the key demographic of women ages 18–49 and scored record ratings in the total viewer category with an average of 3.4 million viewers—up 15% versus the same time in 2005.

[36] On April 19, 2007, the panel discussed the Supreme Court of the United States's ruling in Gonzales v. Carhart, a decision upholding the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.

O'Donnell cited a Florynce Kennedy quote, "If men could get pregnant abortion would be a sacrament" and asked rhetorically "How many Supreme Court judges are Catholic?"

[41][42][43] Frequently portrayed unfavorably by conservative media outlets and what she deemed as Republican pundits,[44] O'Donnell lamented that they were focusing on her comments instead of more important national and world issues.

[51][52] O'Donnell commented that due to Trump's multiple marital affairs and questionable business bankruptcies, he was not a moral authority for young people in America.

"[52] In response, Trump began a "vicious" mass media blitz in which he appeared on various television shows, either in person or by phone, threatening to sue O'Donnell (he never did).

"[57] O'Donnell stated that Republican pundits were mischaracterising her statements and the right-wing media would portray her as a bully, attacking "innocent pure Christian Elisabeth" whenever they disagreed.

[44] O'Donnell decided to leave the show that day, but afterwards stated that the reason was not the argument itself, but rather the fact that she saw on the studio monitor that the camera had shown a split screen, with her and Hasselbeck on either side.

In 2008, O'Donnell starred in and executive produced America, a Lifetime channel film in which she plays the therapist of the title character, a 16-year-old boy aging out of the foster care system.

[82]In 2011, O'Donnell made another guest appearance on Curb Your Enthusiasm, competing for the affection of a bisexual woman with Larry in an episode called "The Bi-Sexual".

In April 2002, O'Donnell released Find Me, a combination of memoir, mystery and detective story with an underlying interest in reuniting birth mothers with their children.

[111] In addition to cataloging her childhood and early adulthood, the book delved into O'Donnell's relationship with a woman with dissociative identity disorder who posed as an under-aged teen who had become pregnant by rape.

In October 2007, she released Celebrity Detox, her second memoir which focuses on the struggles with leaving fame behind, noting her exits from The Rosie O'Donnell Show and The View.

"[112] Although O'Donnell is not involved on a day-to-day basis, she does contribute to the creative aspects of "advertising and marketing materials" and initiated the idea for the company when she filled in as a last-minute replacement headliner on one of Kaminsky's Atlantis Events gay cruises and also came up with the name "R Family Vacations".

[119] She has stated that she intends to bring the show back to Broadway, although Scott Miller writes that people are hesitant to get involved after the "train wreck" of the original production.

[108] Since 1997, Rosie's For All Kids Foundation, overseen by Elizabeth Birch, has awarded more than $22 million in Early Childhood Care and Education program grants to over 900 nonprofit organizations.

"[121] In November 2006, Nightline aired a video report about the opening of The Children's Plaza and Family Center in Renaissance Village, a FEMA trailer park in Louisiana.

[122] This was an emergency response initiative of Rosie's For All Kids Foundation with the help of many local nonprofit organizations and for-profit businesses, all efforts were to assist the families displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

Hosted by comedian Margaret Cho and headlined by Cyndi Lauper, the tour also included Debbie Harry, Erasure, The Gossip, Rufus Wainwright, The Dresden Dolls, The MisShapes, Indigo Girls, The Cliks, and other special guests.

In 2007, she announced her opinion concerning the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, in which she questioned the NIST conclusions, and alleged the U.S. government's involvement in the event.

[144][145] On February 26, 2004, O'Donnell married Carpenter,[146] a former Nickelodeon marketing executive, in San Francisco two weeks after Mayor Gavin Newsom authorized the granting of marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

[147] O'Donnell said during the trial over Rosie magazine she had decided to marry Carpenter, in part because even though they acted as spouses they legally were no closer than friends: "We applied for spousal privilege and were denied it by the state.

In September 2024 Chelsea was arrested in Marinette County, Wisconsin on charges involving child neglect, domestic abuse, maintaining a drug trafficking facility, possession of methamphetamine, illegally obtaining prescriptions and drug paraphernalia, and misdemeanor possession of THC after her 11 month old child was found in a house filled with crack pipes, feces and garbage.