Earlier this year, Oscar-winning actress Tatum O'Neal, the daughter of actors Ryan O'Neal and Joanna Monroe, publicly stated she had begun dating women and didn't consider herself neither straight nor gay, coming out for the first time at age 51 - and now, she's rumored to be Rosie O'Donnell's girlfriend.
On a similar note, O'Donnell has had a rough year herself, filing for divorce from wife Michelle Rounds last February and a recent scandal involving her daughter Chelsea, who ran away from home to join her birth mother, and O'Donnell's father recently passed away; in all, if the rumors about O'Neal are true, Rosie O'Donnell's girlfriend would be the best thing to happen to the actress and television hostess in a while.
Recently, one source apparently said to People Magazine that O'Neal was indeed Rosie O'Donnell's girlfriend, and that while they live in different cities, they're trying to make it work.
"They are romantically involved," the source told the magazine, prompting the very first rumors about O'Neal being Rosie O'Donnell's girlfriend. "It's a bicoastal relationship."
It's said that the two have known each other for a while but O'Neal only recently became Rosie O'Donnell's girlfriend, though the two are not ready to go public with their relationship just yet.
However, The New York Daily News reports that a rep for the former "The View" co-host has denied the rumors, saying that, while the two of them know each other and are in fact friends, they're not actually involved in any other way.
According to E! Online, rumors of O'Neal being Rosie O'Donnell's girlfriend ignited in early August, when the two women were spotted out together attending the Broadway musical "Hamilton," and rumors were further fueled when O'Donnell shared O'Neal's article about her "sexual awakening" on Harper's Bazaar a few weeks later, prompting many to wonder what was the true nature of their relationship.