Rosie O’Donnell received a letter from Lyle Menendez about 30 years ago after he saw her on “Larry King Live,” saying that she believed Erik’s claims that they were molested by their father. “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 recalls. “Barbara said, ‘Ignore him, he’s a murderer.
He’s very cunning.’” Walters had previously interviewed Lyle and his brother Erik in prison for “20/20.” O’Donnell followed her advice.
But two years ago, when a documentary was released that featured new evidence that Lyle and Erik were molested by their father, O’Donnell spoke out in support of the siblings on social media and in the press. “I got a call from Lyle’s wife – I didn’t even know he had a wife – asking if I would talk to him,” O’Donnell says. “He called me on Mother’s Day last year.
” Lyle and Erik are currently serving life sentences without the possibility of parole for the murder of their parents, Jose and Kitty, in 1989. O’Donnell and Lyle became fast friends. “We talk a lot,” O’Donnell says.
“I told them I would do what I could with whatever dwindling fame I have to bring light to their story. I said, ‘It’s not the 90s, Lyle. I’m not on that show anymore.
’ I think if you feel strongly about something and you want to try to help society, you can use your voice beca.