O'Donnell's support for the convicted murderer goes back to the mid-'90s, but they wouldn't meet until decades later.

"For the first time in my life, I felt safe enough to trust and be vulnerable and love a straight man," O'Donnell said of Menendez Rosie O’Donnell revealed that she has a surprising friendship with the convicted murderer Lyle Menendez in a new interviewMenendez was convicted of first-degree murder with his brother Erik Menendez for the 1989 fatal shooting of their parentsO'Donnell previously expressed her belief that the brothers' actions were a result of self-defense during a 1996 appearance on Larry King LiveRosie O’Donnell is opening up about an unlikely friendship.