Rosie O’Donnell’s Troubled Daughter, Chelsea, Files To Change Her Last Name After Comedian Cut Her From $80M Will

Jacob BarkerApril 10, 2025, 9:05 pmNews >

Chelsea O’Donnell, daughter of View alumna Rosie O’Donnell, has petitioned to change her last name following a dispute over her mother’s $80 million will.

Chelsea recently went to jail on drug charges, which were eventually dropped after she agreed to probation.

Chelsea, 27, filed the paperwork in January asking to go by her birth mother’s maiden name, Neuens, according to the court documents. Rosie, 63, addressed her daughter’s decision in a 30-stanza Substack poem posted.

“She wishes to change her last name / to her birth mother’s maiden name / doesn’t make sense to me, I am not her,” she wrote in her free-verse poem, titled “My child Chelsea.” Rosie also discussed her daughter’s struggles in the public eye, noting that she is doing so well now, “Rain or shine / same name or not / that’s my girl / fierce and determined.”

Chelsea decided to file the paperwork after the revelation of the changes to her mother’s estate, seeing that she was removed from two separate trusts following her previous drug arrests. Rosie is said to have made the decision after deciding on her relocation to Ireland in January – she had listed all five of her children in documents obtained by the outlet, but Chelsea was cut from the final paperwork.

In addition to the $80 million estate, Chelsea was reportedly removed from her mother’s life insurance policy, which would have resulted in a $5.4 million payout per child.

The rift between the two escalated in 2015 after 2015 went missing from Rosie’s New York home. She was found one week later and moved to Wisconsin. The pair briefly reconnected in 2018, however, Chelsea’s addiction to drugs drove a wedge between the duo in the years that followed.