Why Rosie O'Donnell Is Trending Right Now: Everything You Need to Know

Rosie O’Donnell has never been one to stay quiet—or still—and 2025 is shaping up as her most event-packed year in decades. The Emmy-winning comedian confirmed that she uprooted her life in January, relocating from New Jersey to a seaside village in County Kildare, Ireland, with her 11-year-old son Clay. O’Donnell said U.S. politics had become “heart-breaking,” calling the move “a chance to exhale and keep my kid safe”. The comedian isn’t hiding away, though. On 18 July she premieres “Common Knowledge,” a one-woman stand-up and storytelling show at Dublin’s historic Olympia Theatre before taking it on a short European tour. “I already had $100 million. If you want more you’re missing the point of your life,” she told The Irish Times while rehearsing inside the 1,240-seat venue, hinting that the new set will skewer celebrity culture, American politics and her own reinvention at 63. Early ticket sales have been strong, with local promoters adding a matinee after the first two nights sold out in under an hour. O’Donnell is also back on television this summer as an unforgettable guest star in season three of HBO’s “And Just Like That …”. She plays Sister Frances, a hard-drinking, queer ex-nun who crosses paths with Miranda on an ill-fated silent retreat—a role she says was “too delicious to refuse”. Viewers have applauded the comic timing that once defined “The Rosie O’Donnell Show,” and streaming-analytics firm ReelMeter reports a 27 percent spike in episode re-watches during the week her character debuted. Equally buzzy is her candid weight-loss journey. After years of battling diabetes and heart disease, O’Donnell revealed she has lost more than 40 pounds with the help of the GLP-1 injectable Mounjaro and a strict Mediterranean diet. Photos of her slimmer frame, posted from a Galway farmers’ market in May, quickly went viral on X and Instagram, with fans praising her “Ireland glow”. Relocation hasn’t softened her political fire. O’Donnell’s TikTok livestreams—shot from a stone-walled cottage and usually tagged #BlueWaveAbroad—regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views as she riffs on the U.S. election cycle, gun reform and LGBTQ+ rights. In a June 10 Instagram post she accused ABC News of having “sold out to Trump,” sparking a fresh round of headlines and a rebuttal from network executives. What’s next? Insiders close to the star say negotiations are underway for a memoir-based docuseries that would blend archival footage from her groundbreaking 1996–2002 talk show with present-day reflections from Ireland. Producers are eyeing a late-2026 drop on Peacock, though O’Donnell’s team declined to confirm. For now, Rosie O’Donnell appears perfectly content splitting her days between Galway coffeehouses, late-night writing sessions in Dublin, and weekly Zoom calls with her five adult children in the States. “I’m still loud, just on a different continent,” she joked recently—and with a new stand-up tour, a scene-stealing TV cameo and viral weight-loss buzz, she’s louder than ever.