Rosie O'Donnell is opening up about her move to Ireland in her new Edinburgh Fringe show Common Knowledge

Type Rosie O’Donnell’s name into Google, and the first autocorrect suggestion is just one word. That word isn’t related to her pioneering, 11-time Emmy-winning daytime talk show, which ran for six seasons in the late 90s, and led to her becoming known in the US media as the “queen of nice”. It isn’t based around her early work as a stand-up career, which was followed by an acting career that saw her sharing the screen with everyone from Tom Hanks and Demi Moore to Madonna (with whom she remains close friends) and Elizabeth Taylor. It isn’t even about Rosie’s tumultuous time as a presenter on the American panel show The View, her work as a charity campaigner and advocate, or her family life.

No, that word is simply “Trump”.

Rosie first publicly crossed paths with the man who would go on to be elected president of the United States almost 20 years ago, in 2006, when she was an anchor on The View, and he was still best known as the face of the reality show The Apprentice.

At that time, Trump was also the owner of the Miss USA pageant (a title he retained until 2015, the year before he became president), which was then facing controversy due to the behaviour of its recently-crowned winner. To settle the matter, Trump gave a press conference defending the young woman in question, insisting she should be given a second chance by the American public, and that she would be allowed to retain her crown.

When this became a discussion point on The View, Rosie shared her take that Trump wasn’t one who should be considered a “moral authority” in any scenario.

“Left the first wife, had an affair, left the second wife, had an affair, had kids both times… but he’s the moral compass for 20-year-olds in America?” Rosie opined, to rapturous applause and laughs from both the audience and her fellow panellists (including future Fox News presenter Elisabeth Hasselbeck), after swooping over her hair and launching into a Trump impersonation.

“Donald, sit and spin, my friend,” she continued, calling his business credentials into question and branding him a “snake-oil salesman”.

Rosie O'Donnell pictured in 2006 during her initial stint on The View, with fellow panellists Elisabeth Hasselbeck, the late Barbara Walters and Joy Behar

Trump swiftly hit back, branding the talk show star a “real loser”, and sparking a feud that has now spanned almost two decades. As the years rolled on, Trump took every opportunity to publicly bash Rosie, repeating his “loser” jibe in various iterations, as well as insulting everything from her appearance and her career to her personal life – including after he began his first presidential campaign.

In 2015, for instance, when Fox News’ Megyn Kelly questioned his use of terms like “fat pigs,” “dogs,” “slobs” and “disgusting animals” to describe women he disagreed with, Trump responded: “Only Rosie O’Donnell.”

Rosie was on his mind yet again during one of his now-infamous debates against fellow candidate Hillary Clinton the following year, when he stated: “I said very tough things to [Rosie, but] I think everybody would agree that she deserves it and nobody feels sorry for her.”

It’s perhaps unsurprising, then, that when it was announced at the end of 2024 that Trump would be returning to the White House, Rosie made a bold decision.

Quietly, she packed up her life, and moved herself and her 12-year-old child across the Atlantic to Ireland, where the small family now resides.

“I needed a place where I could slow it down and remove him from the scary place he lives in my psyche,” she tells HuffPost UK.

The move has been life-changing for Rosie, but it still hasn’t kept her name out of Trump’s mouth. As recently as March, he was

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