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UPDATE — 9/23/26, 11 a.m. ET: Rosie O’Donnell‘s team is speaking out after the comedian discussed her experience working on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.
“Rosie had a conversation with Jimmy before she guest-hosted for him,” O’Donnell’s rep said in a statement to Us on Wednesday, September 23. “She shared her idea about the Epstein survivors, and he told her it would be best for her to do it on YouTube. And she did. She had a great time hosting, loves Jimmy and the show.”
Original story below:
Rosie O’Donnell is revealing details about a controversial segment she tried to get on the air during a recent guest hosting gig on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.
“I haven’t told anybody this, but this is what happened,” O’Donnell, 64, claimed on the September 11 episode of Jann Arden’s podcast. “My idea for the last night was to do the [Jeffrey] Epstein reveal, and they said that they were certain that could not happen. So I said I would do it myself and just put it out on [my own social media.”
According to O’Donnell, she had three days to prepare. Ultimately, eight alleged survivors of Epstein came together to sing a rendition of Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman” together.
“These eight women were a cross-section. We met and I told them about my history and why it means so much to me and to the human race and why this is a vital importance,” O’Donnell shared. “I thanked them for trusting me. We shot it in a few hours. Two hours, we shot the whole thing.”
O’Donnell served as a guest host for four episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live! during the week of August 17. She dropped the Epstein survivors video via Instagram on September 3. (Us has reached out to ABC for comment.)
“After the corrupt AG (trumps former personal lawyer) implied that he did not believe men accused of sex abuse would be charged as a result of the epstein files – despite mountains of evidence … I called some epstein survivors, asked them to sing with me,” O’Donnell wrote via Instagram at the time. “A powerful Helen Reddy song that taught me at 10 years old to use my voice – Show ur support for abuse survivors – Brave enough to speak out.”
In her latest podcast interview, O’Donnell acknowledged that some people thought the Instagram video was a tease to a larger project.
“It wasn’t a documentary. It was something we did in three minutes, but now I’m talking to some people that I will do a segment on each of those women,” she said. “We will tell each of their stories.”
Although O’Donnell did not explain why the network may have blocked her pitch to have the Epstein survivors on the late-night show, things have gotten contentious between ABC and President Donald Trump’s FCC in the last few months.
In August, ABC sued the FCC, alleging the commission was waging an “extraordinary assault” on its free-speech rights by threatening to pull licenses for its eight owned-and-operated local TV stations. (The FCC has since asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit.)
O’Donnell still used her platform to poke fun at Trump, 80, during her guest-hosting gig. During her August 17 monologue, the comedian warned viewers to buckle up as she took aim at the commander in chief.
“I haven’t sat behind a desk on TV in almost 30 years and a lot has changed since the ‘90s,” she said. “Well, back then, there was a war in the Middle East. Climate change was ravaging our planet, we had a president who was embroiled in scandals. But today, everything is so chill.”
