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Rosie O’Donnell reacts to her daughter’s arrest on drug possession and child neglect charges

Rosie O’Donnell reacts to her daughter’s arrest on drug possession and child neglect charges

Comedian and former talk show host Rosie O’Donnell has publicly announced the arrest of her second adopted daughter, Chelsea Belle O’Donnell.

On Sept. 17, the 27-year-old was charged with four felonies, including drug trafficking, child neglect, possession of methamphetamine and possession of THC. At the time of the arrest on September 10th In touch weekly reports that Chelsea’s 11-month-old son, Atlas, was found in the home, which was full of meth pipes, feces and trash.

Chelsea called police to the scene, where she reportedly got into a verbal altercation with her boyfriend, Jacob Nelund. Additionally, O’Donnell was charged with disorderly conduct/domestic violence and possession of illegally obtained prescription drugs.

As the arrest broke online in the weeks following, Rosie O’Donnell responded to the unfortunate news on Instagram, sharing a picture of her daughter and grandson “from a better time.”

“Unfortunately, this is nothing new to our family – Chelsea has struggled with drug addiction for a decade,” O’Donnell wrote. “We all hope she finds a way out of this deadly disease.”

Along with her young son, Chelsea has three older children; Daughter Avery Lynn in February 2022, Riley in January 2021 and Skylar Rose in December 2018.

O’Donnell adopted Chelsea along with her ex-wife Kelli Carpenter, but both women had a troubled relationship with their daughter as she grew older. In 2015, when she was 18, Chelsea was reported to have run away twice, once to her birth mother, and in a second incident she was found with a 25-year-old man, Steven Sheerer, who was later charged with child endangerment, according to CNN. Chelsea later denied running away but were instead kicked out Daily Mail.

O’Donnell has four other adopted children, Parker (29), Blake (24), Vivenne (21) and Dakota (11). In a 2023 episode The Kelly Clarkson ShowO’Donnell claimed she was “too lenient” on her older children.

“I wanted to give everything to them, my elders, when I was a young mother in my early 30s,” O’Donnell said around the 2-minute mark of the video below.

She continued: “And now, as a 60-year-old mother of a 9-year-old, I realize that keeping the world smooth and bump-free will not serve them well in adulthood. It really doesn’t.” And I was far too lenient of a mother to my elders and tried too hard to fix my own childhood by mothering them.

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