Actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell has revealed why she made a quiet, unpublicized trip back to the United States after spending more than a year living in Ireland following the 2025 U.S. presidential election.

In a recent interview on SiriusXM’s Cuomo Mornings, O’Donnell explained that she returned to the U.S. for about two weeks to visiting family and to assess whether it was safe to re-enter the country before potentially bringing her youngest child for a future visit. She had moved to Ireland in January 2025 with her child and has not lived in the U.S. since.

O’Donnell said her visit was personal rather than performative, driven by a desire to reconnect with loved ones after more than a year apart. She also used the trip to gauge how easy it would be to travel in and out of the United States amid a tense political climate.

Her relocation two years ago followed a long-running feud with former President Donald Trump, who publicly criticized her and threatened to revoke her citizenship — comments O’Donnell has strongly rejected. She emphasized that she will never renounce her American citizenship, though she is pursuing Irish citizenship to secure dual nationality.

During her recent stay, she described the United States as feeling “very different” after living abroad, in part because she hadn’t consumed U.S. media for a long period. O’Donnell contrasted this with life in Ireland, which she said offered a more balanced and less celebrity-focused culture.

While O’Donnell plans to maintain strong ties with her American family and heritage, she reiterated that Ireland remains her primary home for now, and her brief return allowed her to measure the social and emotional landscape before contemplating any longer stays.