After her breakup with longtime girlfriend Kelli Carpenter in 2007, Rosie O’Donnell is back in the swing of things after falling in love with new girlfriend Michelle Rounds, 40, PEOPLE magazine reports. The timing is well-placed for O’Donnell who, in addition to celebrating new love, will also celebrate her encore debut of The Rosie Show, which will air on Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network on Oct. 10.
“I did not expect it when I met her at Starbucks,” O’Donnell, 49, tells PEOPLE of falling for I.T. headhunter Michelle Rounds, 40, whom she began dating a few months ago.
“She didn’t look like any lesbian I’d ever met,” the Queen of Nice told PEOPLE. “But it’s fun and very exciting.”
O’Donnell heads back to the air after her longtime show The Rosie O’Donnell Show ended in 2002. She held a short stint as a moderator on The View from 2006 to 2007 in addition to hosting a radio show on SiriusXM. But after a bout of hormone therapy, the talk show diva is ready to hit the air again.
“It’s like you’re a withering rose and the petals are falling off and all of sudden you bloom again,” she says. “For me, [the hormones] have made a drastic difference.”
Rosie added: “I’m in menopause, and I’ve been having really bad hot flashes,” although O’Donnell’s therapist offered up another reason for the heat, PEOPLE reports: “She said, ‘ [It’s] because you’re also in love.’ “
