This is US comedian and former talk show host Rosie O’Donnell, pictured for the first time in the exclusive Dublin enclave where she has exiled herself to escape President Donald Trump’s bile.
Such is the simmering hatred between the pair that their 20-year-old feud even dominated the Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s visit to the Oval Office earlier this month.
Mr Martin appeared not to know who Ms O’Donnell was when asked by right-wing Trump supporter Brian Glenn: ‘Why in the world would you let Rosie O’Donnell move to Ireland?’ while Trump interjected: ‘You’re better off not knowing.’
But in contrast to the icy barbs from the White House, 63-year-old O ‘Donnell has been warmly welcomed by her new neighbours in what is now something of a celebrity bolthole just 20 minutes from central Dublin.
She was photographed with a visiting friend walking near the rented property worth in excess of £1.5 million on a steep hill with stunning views across Dublin Bay and the Wicklow Mountains beyond.
Among those living nearby include U2’s drummer Larry Mullen, Oscar-nominated actor Brendan Gleason and model and media personality Vogue Williams.
Rosie, who moved to her ancestral homeland of Ireland in January, along with her non-binary child Clay, 12, becomes the latest celebrity to move in the wake of Trump being elected to a second term in office.
Among the stars to recently jump ship are actor Richard Gere, who sold his $11 million Connecticut home in November and moved to Madrid, Spain, and long-time liberal Ellen DeGeneres, 67, and her wife Portia de Rossi, 52, opted to move to the Cotswolds in December.
Ms O’Donnell has lost no chance to let her fans on TikTok know that the move to Ireland was primarily to escape the hostility from Trump and his supporters, as well as bringing up her child in a kinder environment.
The diehard liberal actress and comedian – who has a history of speaking out against Trump long before he became President – said she couldn’t face living in the US under Trump, so she packed her bags and moved on January 15 – just days before his inauguration.
Ever since, she has been settling into the seaside community with autistic Clay and her autism assistance labrador, Kuma. Last week Rosie appeared on RTE’s Late Late Show with Patrick Kielty and received warm applause from the audience when she praised Ireland for ‘the sweetness of the people.’
She said she appreciated the way no one made a big fuss over her celebrity and told how she’d been helped by an assistant in a Dublin store for two hours, who only at the end of their meeting whispered discreetly: ‘I’m a huge fan’.
Likewise, staff and locals at a nearby pub told of O’Donnell’s ‘no nonsense’ attitude when she and Clay drop in for a drink and buffalo wings.
‘She’s very happy to enjoy the craic, and speaks her mind,’ said one member of staff, ‘but she doesn’t come in acting the big ‘I am’, just because she’s famous.
‘She’s pretty much accepted as one of the locals now – people are very welcoming here if you’re willing to just be yourself and accept other people for themselves.’
Rosie admitted in a recent TikTok video that she struggles not to refer to Clay as ‘she’, since her daughter changed her name from Dakota and changed her preferred pronouns.
Her mother has even tattooed the pronoun ‘THEY’ onto her forearm as a reminder.
She told fans: ‘I know that I say ‘she’ a lot with Clay, and I really need to use ‘they, them’ as the tattoo I got right there on my wrists says… I’m trying my best.’
Residents in the street said they hadn’t seen much of their new neighbour since her arrival.
‘It’s a cliché, but people really do keep themselves to themselves in this road,’ one told .
But by contrast, since arriving in her plush Irish refuge, O’Donnell has been far from anonymous on social media, launching frequent verbal social media salvos at her arch-enemy Trump on TikTok, as well as on Substack.
She told her 2.5m followers that leaving the States was something she never expected to do, adding: ‘I was never someone who thought I would move to another country, that’s what I decided would be the best for myself and my 12-year-old child. And here we are.’
She admitted she is already missing many elements of her life in America as she continued: ‘You know, I’m happy. Clay is happy. I miss my other kids. I miss my friends.
‘I miss many things about life there at home and I’m trying to find a home here in this beautiful country.’
She first hinted at her permanent move to Ireland early in March, when she posed for a selfie behind the wheel of a car and said she was struggling to drive on a different side of the road.
‘Bought a little used car to tool around the countryside on the wrong side of the road,’ she wrote on Instagram confessing: ‘Hit the curb three times – thought I hit a cat!!! #newadventures.’
Ms O’Donnell also has four other children, all adopted, but they are all past school age.
She has become a big backer of the autistic community in Ireland and will participate in a Walk for Autism on April 5, organised by the nationwide charity AsIamIreland, founded by Adam Harris, brother of the Tánaiste, or deputy Prime Minister, Simon Harris.
In December, O’Donnell took to TikTok to berate Time magazine for naming Donald Trump its man of the year for 2024.
‘Man of the year, Donald Trump. Well, f**k you Time Magazine. F**k you, seriously,’ O’Donnell said. ‘How about most dangerous man of the year? How about most criminal man of the year? How about the worst president we’ve ever had… of the year.’
Despite her anger, she’s lost none of her ability to raise a laugh and told the Late Late Show’s audience about travelling by train from Dublin to Belfast to meet her cousins, Paula and Margaret.
On the journey, she recounted meeting a group of well oiled women on a 40th birthday treat and volunteered to take their group photo.
‘They said thanks, and I said ‘you’re welcome’ and one turned round and said, ‘There you go, I told you, Lisa, it’s feckin’ Rosie O’Donnell!’.
‘But they were so loving and kind about it, and that’s been the biggest thing in Ireland, the sweetness of the people, I have to say.’
She also explained the long history of Trump’s animus against her, saying: ‘I told the truth about him on a programme where it was my job to talk about pop culture and politics.
‘I mentioned his company bankruptcies, and I mentioned all of the sexual assault allegations, and I mentioned that he was not, in fact, the businessman everyone thinks he is.
‘The Apprentice sold a bunch of lies to America for over 10 years, and half of America believed it. ‘And so he was very angry to say the least, and he hasn’t let it go.
‘So he sort of uses me as a punchline whenever he feels the need.’
Another plus for O’Donnell is that mixed martial arts fighter – and Trump favourite – Conor McGregor, who recently lost a civil rape trial, has been prevented from developing a ’boutique’ hotel.
Last year a jury found that McGregor assaulted Nikita Hand in a Dublin hotel in December 2018.
He has been ordered to pay her more than €248,000 (£206,000) in damages.
Asked about McGregor and Trump’s bizarre promotion of him as a future President of Ireland, O’Donnell said: ‘It seems very strange to me that the President of the United States has so many friends who are sexual abusers.’
In a lengthy video posted to her TikTok account, O’Donnell said the Irish have been ‘so welcoming’ since she moved in the wake of the Los Angeles wildfires and Trump’s inauguration.
The former The View co-host lost her Malibu beachfront property in the California wildfires in January. She has confirmed she is ‘in the process’ of applying for Irish citizenship.
‘I’m trying to find a home here in this beautiful country and when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America, that’s when we will consider coming back,’ she said.
‘It’s been heartbreaking to see what’s happening politically and hard for me personally as well. The personal is political, as we all know.
‘I just felt like we needed to take care of ourselves and make some hard decisions and follow through. And now as we’re getting settled, I was ready to post this and to tell everybody what’s been going on.’
She concluded the video with a message for her American fans: ‘Protect your sanity as much as you can, and try not to swim in the chaos if possible, but I know it’s nearly impossible when you’re there in the middle of it.
‘I think about everyone every day and the United States of America. And I am hoping that we can turn things around, counting on you, all of you, to do what’s right. And I think deep down inside, we all know what that is.’