‘That Monkey Is My Mama!’

Rosie O’Donnell Instagram

Rosie O’Donnell reflects on the first time she was able to show her work to her children.

On The Kelly Clarkson ShowThe American Gigolo actress recalled what it was like taking her two oldest kids — son Parker, 27, and daughter Chelsea, 25 — to see Tarzan They first saw her work as children.

“I took them to see.” Tarzan. She shared, “I was Turk, I was that monkey in that.”

“So, my son is sitting there. He’s four years old, and the other baby, Chelsea, is two. He stands up on his chair in the middle and exclaims, “That monkey’s my mama!”

“I was like, “Yes!” I didn’t realize you would get that.

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O’Donnell, 60 years old, recalled the first time Blake, her 23-year-old son, saw her. A League of Their OwnIt was played by a friend at a party. His mom told him that the movie made her feel like a teenager, and that they were “playing baseball” with him.

She laughed and then told her son, Blakey, that was the most famous movie of all. It was that movie that I started to be an entertainer.

He responded, “Yeah, it wasn’t there, but it was odd to see you this young.”

O’Donnell is mother to Parker, Chelsea, Blake, and Blake.

“I adopted when I was 50. Clarkson laughed with O’Donnell that she thought she could have a facelift or a child. “So I took the child, it kept my young in a different manner.”

Chloe Aftel

Clarkson asked O’Donnell how her parenting had changed over the years. O’Donnell responded that she was too lenient with her older children.

“I wanted them to have everything when I was young and a mother of a child in my thirties. As a mother of a 9 year old, I realized that smoothing the world for them is not a good idea.

She continued, “It doesn’t work that way. I was too lenient with my older children and too trying to fix my own childhood by mothering them.”

“Now, I have a little girl with autism. She’s nine years old. Her autism is magical because it forces you to slow down and take the time to truly see the world from the perspective of another person.