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Menendez Brothers Score Legal Win in Resentencing Hearing
Rosie O’Donnell has an unlikely friend in Lyle Menendez.
In fact, despite the 57-year-old’s decades-long imprisonment for the 1989 murders of his parents—which he and his brother Erik Menendez were convicted of committing in 1996—his regular communication with the comedian helped her find treatment for her youngest child Clay, 12, who is on the autism spectrum.
“If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t have [my child’s service] dog,” she told Us Weekly in an interview published April 22. “While I was really trying to decide whether it was morally right for me to apply [for a service dog] he would say, ‘I’ve been talking to you for two years. I hear Clay every night.’”
Rosie, who moved to Ireland with Clay in January, went on to credit Lyle for encouraging her to seek out the service animal, which led to “really profound” healing for the preteen.
“He understood how challenging it can be and said, ‘This is something that will help them and will help you too,’” she continued. “If it hadn’t been for him, I wouldn’t have done it.”
The former talk show host went on to describe her friendship with Lyle as “a primary relationship in my life” before acknowledging, “I know that sounds strange to people.”
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“The fact that he has been in prison for 35 years, he has really worked very hard on knowing how to continue living with only a phone that interrupts you every 20 minutes,” she explained. “He knows how to sort of climb over all the barriers to humanity that prison places you in and go around it. That’s what he did with me in a very, very loving and supportive brotherly way.”
Rosie has previously detailed how her bond with Lyle began, telling The New York Times that she received a letter from the inmate after expressing her support for him and Erik on Larry King Live in 1996. While she did not respond at the time, she has advocated for the brothers’ release on social media in recent years, leading Lyle’s now-estranged wife Rebecca Sneed to put the two in touch.
“He started calling me on a regular basis from the tablet phone thing they have,” Rosie told the outlet in an article published April 12. “He would tell me about his life, what he’s been doing in prison, and, for the first time in my life, I felt safe enough to trust and be vulnerable and love a straight man.”
For more surprising celebrity friendships, keep scrolling.
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