Rosie O’Donnell said she feels like “a big sister” to Lyle and Erik Menendez, who are currently serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of their parents, José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez, in 1989. “I feel like a big sister in a way,” O’Donnell told Variety ., after being asked if she has “become sort of a surrogate mother” to the Menendez brothers.
Notably, the Menendez brothers recently received national attention again as their story is depicted in the new Netflix series, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story , which the two men have condemned. “I think everyone who brought attention to it should be commended,” O’Donnell said, but added, “I’m glad that it happened. I’m not one to say it did or didn’t help.
I just know, in my opinion, it could have been much more accurate.” O’Donnell also revealed that Barbara Walters, who interviewed Lyle and Erik in prison in 1996, previously told her not to talk to the Menendez brothers, waring that Lyle is “very cunning” and a “murderer.” “I was out to lunch with Barbara Walters and our publicist Cindy Berger, and I said, ‘Barbara, you’re not going to believe this, but guess who wrote to me — Lyle Menendez,” O’Donnell recalled.
“Barbara said, ‘Ignore him, he’s a murderer. He’s very cunning.'” While O’Donnell initially followed Walters’ advice, she apparently couldn’t help herself from reaching out to the brothers two year.