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Rosie O’Donnell’s Daughter Chelsea Pleads For Privacy, Is ‘Disappointed’ With Birth Family [Video]

By Maat van Uitert
Published on: 03:11 PST, Nov 12, 2015

Rosie O’Donnell and her feud with daughter Chelsea has become media fodder, and now Chelsea wants to set the record straight, in her own voice. In her interviews with Inside Edition and Entertainment Tonight, as well as in an article with the Daily Mail, Rosie O’Donnell’s teenage daughter has made it clear she doesn’t love Rosie, and is unhappy with how the media has twisted her words, reports Entertainment Tonight.

In a statement to the media, Chelsea O’Donnell claims that “many things I have said have been cut or distorted for the media hype” and O’Donnell wants to “clear the air from my own voice.” Although she is Rosie O’Donnell’s daughter, Chelsea “never grew up and chose to be a ‘public figure,’ ” and her “goal has and never will be to be on TV or in print.”

But because the media has been “speaking untruth about me personally and my life,” O’Donnell is relying on her “own voice” to dispel any false rumors.

The teen reiterated that she is “so grateful to have been adopted,” and highlighted that she “love[s] my siblings dearly and miss them everyday.” O’Donnell confessed in her statement that “like many 18-year-olds, I am simply just trying to find my OWN identity through life,” which “hasn’t been easy… always being in the public eye as a child, and not by choice.”

In a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, Rosie O’Donnell revealed that her daughter is “in a crisis,” and “her family loves her and misses her.” In the past, Rosie admitted that her daughter is “mentally ill,” and Chelsea agrees she suffers from depression and anxiety.

Rosie confided that Chelsea is “a child in crisis,” and just like any parent, Rosie O’Donnell will remain upset “until [her] child is once again safely on the shore and not in [the] rapids.”

“Sadly, right now, Chelsea seems to be in the rapids,” Rosie revealed. Rosie O’Donnell adopted her daughter in 1997 with then-wife Kelli Carpenter. Rosie and Kelli later divorced, and Chelsea continued to live with Rosie.

Sparking the conflict between Rosie and the teenager, however, is that Rosie publicly asserts her daughter has a mental illness, but Chelsea disagrees, telling Entertainment Tonight in her statement that she suffers from a “disease.” In her interview with Inside Edition, the teen revealed that she feels humiliated that Rosie O’Donnell claims she is mentally ill, and no longer feels any love for Rosie, People reports.

Rosie, however, reassured her fans that her daughter suffers from a “mental illness” in a public stand-up comedy gig in Manhattan recently, reports E! News.

In her interview with Inside Edition, Chelsea said that right now, she is “in a good place in my life …Yeah I have anxiety and depression but I’m not a crazy person.”

Chelsea also reveals in her statement to Entertainment Tonight that her desire to find her birth mother was “a deep desire to know where I came from at birth.” Like many adopted children, O’Donnell wanted to know “what my biological family looked like and were from.”

The teen famously left the O’Donnell home to live with her birth mother in Wisconsin, according to People, but was “disappointed” with her birth family, reports Entertainment Tonight. In her statement, the teenager revealed that she is “glad to have closure on that part of my life.”

Chelsea O’Donnell stayed for six days with her birth mother before leaving to return to New York, reports E! News. O’Donnell confessed to Entertainment Tonight that she has “no desires to continue a relationship with the woman who gave birth to me.”

In her statement, Rosie O’Donnell’s adopted daughter says she is “trying to heal deep settled wounds,” with hopes to complete high school and move on to college.

Although “a part of my heart will always care for Rosie,” the “many things she has done to me over the past few months are unforgivable at the present,” the teen said. Chelsea has not ruled out a relationship with Rosie O’Donnell, but admits that “[s]ome things just take time, if ever.”

Chelsea O’Donnell also pleaded for privacy so she can work things out with Rosie, telling Entertainment Tonight that “[e]verything further personally will be handled via me and my family alone and not publicly, unless necessary.”

[Photo by Monica Schipper / Getty Images]

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