Rosie O’Donnell talks life in Ireland during Jimmy Kimmel guest hosting

The comedian moved to Ireland in 2025 following Trump's election.

O'Donnell and her youngest child, Clay, moved from New York to Dublin in January 2025 following the election of President Donald Trump.

In her opening monologue, the comedian explained how she has been living in Dublin since January 2025 “because of mango Mussolini”.

"I read that Project 2025 and said, 'I got to get myself out of here'," she said.

O'Donnell's feud with Trump dates back to 2006, when she criticised him during her time on daytime talk show The View.

Since leaving the US, she has not escaped comment from Mr Trump, who even said he considered revoking her US citizenship.

During Taoiseach Micheál Martin's visit to the White House in 2025, Trump said he was “better off not knowing” O’Donnell.

While opening Monday night's Jimmy Kimmel show, she joked: “If you thought the president hated Jimmy Kimmel Live when it was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, buckle up people.”

Speaking on her time in Ireland, the comedian jested: “I decided to go to Ireland, where people are driven to drink regardless of who’s running their country."

On a more serious note, she stated: “Everyone thought that the weather was going to be really overwhelming for me, but it really wasn’t, because the people in Ireland are the kindest people I’ve ever met.

“They would stop me in the street. They would say to me, ‘Welcome, Rosie. You’re home. We love having you here’.  I was like, ‘It’s been my refuge and my salvation’, and to the people of Ireland, I send my love. I’ll be home soon.”

O'Donnell added that as a young comedian, she would feel frustrated by jokes made around the drinking habits of Irish people, and deadpan to the camera she said: “And then I moved there."

“The Irish people know something about drinking, I can tell you that.”

O’Donnell continued to praise the Irish people and her experience here, recounting interactions with locals including Angela, the lollipop lady, and Joan, the pharmacist, with whom she had an awkward misunderstanding.

She described Joan as looking 'a lot like Joan London' and said she wasn't used to speaking directly to a pharmacist, nevermind one as helpful as Joan.

"I was like, what the hell? What is going on here? You know, I had never spoken to a pharmacist in my life. If you grew up in New York City, you see them behind the bulletproof glass at CVS counting out Xanax tablets, hating their life, right?"

After her second time in the pharmacy, O'Donnell told the audience she called her friends in LA and said she thinks she's 'dating a pharmacist'.

She said: "I mean, what else could it be, you know?"

"So, my friends, I'm so mad at them for this; they really egged me on, they're like, 'Rosie, you got to talk to her'.

"So I go in and Joan's alone, so I get up my guts and I say...'You know, I was recently talking to some of my friends back home and I told them about our connection and I don't know what you're feeling, but I was just wondering if I could possibly buy you dinner on a weekend or something?'".

Joan then asked if Rosie was asking her on a date, saying 'that'll come as big news to my husband'.

The show marked O’Donnell’s first time hosting a talk show in three decades.