Rosie O’Donnell Reconnects With Estranged Daughter Chelsea

Rosie O’Donnell has reconnected with her estranged teenaged daughter Chelsea O’Donnell and shared a recent snap of the two together.

Rosie O’Donnell & Chelsea O’Donnell

Rosie took to Instagram Thursday with a snap of herself with Chelsea, 19. She captioned the picture, “chelsea and me – what a difference a year makes #hopelives.”

Last August, Rosie had taken to Twitter to reveal that Chelsea, then 17, was missing. She noted that this was of even greater concern, as Chelsea suffered from an undisclosed mental illness. She was found a week later in New Jersey, staying at the home of a man named Steven Sheerer, who had a history of drug charges. The two had apparently carried on a relationship over the phone in the weeks before Chelsea ran away. Sheerer was soon imprisoned, and Chelsea went to live with her birth mother in Wisconsin.

While staying in Wisconsin with her biological mother, Chelsea gave an interview in which she claimed that Rosie had kicked her out, and painted an overall negative image of the famous comedian and actress.

“She asked me to talk about what was going on and I didn’t want to. So she asked for my phone and my computer. This was hours before she told me to leave. I gave them to her. A few hours later, she told me to leave. I wasn’t planning to go until I turned 18 on the 24th,” Chelsea told the Daily Mail. “Rosie said that I was almost 18, and she got all this crap from work, and she didn’t want to have to deal with that at home too.”

Rosie apparently found Chelsea’s interview “heartbreaking on every level,” a rep told Us Weekly.