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Chelsea O'Donnell has spoken for the first time about what it was like to grow up as Rosie's daughter and what really happened in the days she was reported missing by her 'frantic' mother last August in an exclusive interview with Daily Mail Online.

The 18-year-old reveals how Rosie's public persona is 'phony' and has little to do with her life behind closed doors.

She spoke out to disclose what she sees as O'Donnell's hypocrisy - that when she's out and about her bubbly and engaging personality is belied by the way she is at home. 

Chelsea said: 'I find her not genuine a lot of the time. When we'd go out, she was a completely different person in public than at home and I had a hard time with that. It's like two different people.'

She also spoke to deny the star's public claims - made through O'Donnell's own social media accounts and apparently to the police - that she had run away from home and instead said Rosie had kicked her out two weeks before her 18th birthday. 

O'Donnell also said at the time that Chelsea was mentally ill, a claim which was repeated by a police officer - but Chelsea tells Daily Mail Online: 'I wouldn't say I'm mentally ill – I would say lots of people struggle with what I have.'

And she tells how despite Rosie's public avowal of the importance of family life, she had been largely raised by nannies, and is closer to two of them than to Rosie.

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Behind closed doors: Rosie O'Donnell's adopted daughter says her mom is a ' phony' in public who would put on a happy face, but then ignore her kids at home

Chelsea, Rosie's 18-year-old daughter, poses for a photo with her dog named Bear as she opens up about her life with the ex View star

A younger Chelsea says growing up in the O'Donnell household was fine at first, but nothing like the happy Rosie America saw on television

The teen also revealed her heartache at being separated from her brothers and sister when she was 13 to be sent to a boarding school 2,000 miles from home.

Chelsea,18, shared details of life inside Rosie's mansion in Nyack, New York, why the 53-year-old suddenly left The View last year and what led to the breakdown in her marriages to wives Kelli Carpenter and Michelle Rounds. 

In her interview she reveals details of O'Donnell's life away from the public sphere, including how she likes to lock herself away in an 'arts and crafts house' to paint, blast Madonna on the stereo and smoke weed.   

Chelsea told Daily Mail Online: 'I find her not genuine a lot of the time. When we'd go out, she was a completely different person in public than at home and I had a hard time with that. It's like two different people.

'I feel she should be her real self, who she really is. She has this public persona; she will put this big smile on her face and try to be funny. She would always go up to people and want to hold their babies in public. She had this happy, friendly side to her.

'Whereas when we were home, even if it was on the same day, she would either just be in her room, not engaging with us, or watching documentaries.

'And if we didn't want to do what she wanted to do, it would cause a big issue.'

One big 'happy' family: Rosie adopted Chelsea at three months old. She has four other children

The teen revealed to Daily Mail Online what daily life is like in Rosie's house.

Chelsea said: 'Our dinners were mostly ordering in pizza or Chinese food because nobody could really cook except for my other mom, Kelli [Carpenter, Rosie's first ex-wife].

'Rosie would eat takeout with us and if there were cookies in the house, she would eat them all. She was always coming into our rooms and asking if we had candy.

'She would drink beer when we were growing up but after her heart attack she couldn't. Now I think she drinks wine.' 

Chelsea added: 'I mean, she smokes weed – not around us – but the whole house smells like it.'

Rosie suffered a heart attack in August 2012 which led to her adopting a new diet, her daughter said.

'She's had to be healthier since her heart attack. She has a lady who comes in to cook for her now, so she eats a little better.

'The chef makes her smaller portions of the stuff you are supposed to eat – like protein, vegetables and carbs.

'She likes to sleep late. Dakota [Rosie's two-year-old daughter adopted with second wife, Michelle Rounds] sometimes sleeps in her room, so if she wakes up early, she'll come out and give her to one of us or a nanny and go back to bed.

'Rosie wears tight Spandex shorts and a T-shirt around house. She doesn't get dressed and never wears make-up unless someone comes to do it for her.'

Chelsea also spoke about her mom's hobbies.

'She has a whole house which is just for her arts and crafts. She bought the next door neighbor's house. She goes and spends all day down there,' the teen said.

'Rosie does a lot of painting and doodles on these little 'Munny' dolls [customizable blank figurines] which she puts her signature on and sells online.

'The kids were allowed inside the arts and crafts house. It has paint all over the floors and walls, it's kind of a mess but it's still nice. Rosie has her desk and computer in there and little stools around tables.

Chealeas doesn't have many candid shot of herself with her adoptive mother. This is one of the few

Rosie's daughter says she was separated from her brothers - Blake left and Parker (right) and sister (Vivivianne) when she was 13-year-old. She was sent to a boarding school 2,000 miles from home

Family secrets: Chelsea (second from left),  with Parker, Blake and Vivienne,says Rosie smokes weed, never gets dressed and watches documentaries all day long

'She has some speakers set up and she blasts Madonna, she's obsessed with her. But she also like to play Eminem and Chris Brown.

'She would watch documentaries and draw all day long, in her bedroom or in her arts and crafts house.'

Rosie's solitary pursuits made it difficult when the children were younger, Chelsea said.

'Rosie would prefer to stay home and watch her shows and kind of do her thing. But on the weekends, my siblings and I would want to go out. My sister [Vivienne] would want to go to the mall or I'd want to get coffee. Rosie wouldn't want to drive us but there was always someone there to help.

Chelsea posts a touching caption on this snapchat photo of her with her sister, Vivienne

'There were other people around the house for different reasons and they would take us places when she really wouldn't want to be doing it.'

Chelsea said she was 'pretty much raised by nannies' which led to her having a closer relationship with a couple of them than Rosie. She says she is strongly attached to two in particular - Geraldine and Tanya [who is now Rosie's personal assistant].

'Ger has been there since before I was born,' Chelsea said. 'She was there for my older brother, Parker. They [Geraldine and Tanya] have both been a huge part of my life and support.

'If Rosie was in the city, they would stay at the house. Ger lived five minutes away so she was there whenever. There were other nannies in between but those two were significant to me.'

Chelsea described her early childhood as a happy one. Along with her brothers and sister – Parker, now 20, Blake, 15, and 12-year-old Vivienne – she attended the Green Meadow-Waldorf School in Chestnut Ridge, about 20 minutes from home.

'We'd go to school and then I would go home and hang out, mostly by myself because I enjoy my own company, or play with my dogs. My brothers were into playing sports so they would stay back at school for practices and games,' she said.

'Rosie would play with us sometimes. When I was 11 and Parker was 13, we were obsessed with Scrabble and she would play with us.

'She showed affection with my siblings but I don't like her touching me - but that's just me. We wouldn't cuddle up on the couch and watch movies, we would take our own chairs.

'We went on vacation a lot when I was little and that was always fun. It was nice to go to Florida and hang out with my siblings.

Chelsea O'Donnell says only Kelli Carpenter, Rosie's first ex-wife, would cook. She claimed Rosie would feed her and her siblings pizza and Chinese food

'I was really passionate about horse-riding until I was about 12.'

Around this time, Rosie's marriage to Kelli Carpenter broke down. The couple started dating in 1999 when Chelsea was a baby and married in San Francisco in 2004 when gay marriage was legalized there. The pair share custody of their four children.

'They weren't getting along, they were fighting a lot,' Chelsea said. 'They would turn the TV up when we were watching it and go outside and yell at each other.'

'Since I was 12, I've struggled with depression and anxiety. It started when Rosie and Kelli got divorced. It was very upsetting to me and I think I took it harder than the rest of my siblings.

'That's when everything started to go downhill and I got sent away.'

Around this time, Chelsea said her relationship with Rosie deteriorated.

'Rosie's fuse was really short with me and she would yell. For punishment, we were sent to our rooms, no electronics, not being allowed to hang out with friends.

'She told me I was different from the other kids. At the beginning of the summer when Parker was acting like a jerk and she was yelling at him, she turned to me and said: 'See, you're not the problem child anymore.'

Chelsea moved in with Kelli Carpenter at the age of 12. Kelli and Rosie are no longer in contact, Chelsea said. It's Kelli's wife Anne who communicates with Rosie via email but only about the children's schedules.

'I was really happy there,' Chelsea said. 'Kelli had just bought a new house and I got to help her paint it and put together rooms. Anne was there, they had just started dating, and the three of us were always hanging out which was a lot of fun for me.

'I didn't really see Rosie at all at that time. I never felt connected to her and I never really enjoyed being around her.

Sisterly love: Chelsea and sister Vivienne enjoy a day at the beach together

A normal teenager: Chelsea tells Daily Mail Online she was devastated by Rosie's social media posts about her being mentally ill. Here she is enjoying a treat with brother Blake

'Things were good when I was younger but as I got older, I became more interested in knowing about my birth parents and didn't really get along with Rosie very well.'

Rosie had shared details of her adoption and birth parents, although Chelsea claims to have recently discovered some of that information was untrue.

'Rosie told me some things about being adopted when I was younger but she lied to me about the adoption. She said when she got me, I was in withdrawal from heroin because my birth mom had been using when she was pregnant with me.

'But I recently went to the hospital in Wisconsin where I was born and got my birth records. They showed that right after birth I was a 9 [on the 0-10 Apgar score used to evaluate newborns] and soon afterwards I was a '10' baby. There was nothing in my system and my tests came back clean.'

Aged 12, Chelsea went to see a therapist where she learned more about her biological family.

'The therapist gave me three pictures – of my dad, my birth mom and my half-brother, who is my dad's son.'

Soon after she turned 13, Chelsea was sent to a therapeutic boarding school in Utah – more than 2,000 miles from New York. She spent three years at the school. The teen was allowed to write letters to her siblings and, depending on her good behavior, was allowed a few phones of up to 30 minutes each week.

Chelsea said: 'The school would help me work through my emotional things or work on my relationships with family because they were not so great at the time.

'I didn't really enjoy it. It was really far away, really strict and in the middle of nowhere. The people were great – I'm still in contact with almost all of them.'

But the experience of being separated from her family for so long left her feeling alone.

'I felt I'd been sent away,' Chelsea said. 'She [Rosie] said it was because she wanted to protect me and do what was best but I was 12. I was having a lot of struggles, realizing I like boys and not knowing how to handle those feelings. I may not have gone about it in the best way.'

She added: 'I resent her for that. That's four years of my life that were spent sent away to places where I had very limited freedom and I didn't want to be.

'I think being sent away has played a huge part in why our relationship is so hard.'

When she graduated from the Utah school at 15, mom Kelli and her wife Anne [Steele], sister Vivienne and brother Blake came to see her graduate.

'They were the only ones who came out to my graduation. It was really nice, they wrote poems to read after I did my speech.'

Chelsea then moved to Massachusetts to attend a school with a similar program.

'It was similar to the school in Utah but a lot smaller. I could go home every couple of weekends because it was only a bus ride away.

'Things were ok with Rosie at this point. The fact that I wasn't living there made it easier to get along with her.'

She said that she has always felt like an outsider in Rosie's family.

'My little brother Blake always wanted to go to movies with Rosie on Saturday mornings. And my sister Vivienne, she's super bubbly and into acting and that's Rosie's whole thing. Rosie is so happy that Vivvy is into acting, she's always in plays, and it's nice.

'And baby Dakota, she's two, everybody loves her. I think that they have things in common with Rosie which makes it easier to get along with her.'

The 18-year-old says she loves her brothers and sisters and misses them.

'When we were younger, we would argue over silly things, just to be difficult. But as we've gotten older our relationships have grown and I'd say my little sister is one of my best friends. We're really close.'

Chelsea moved back into Rosie's home last year when she was 17.

'Most of the furniture is regular like at anyone's house,' she said. 'There's a comfy sofa which you can nap on. But there is so much space, that it never really feels homey.

'There's a TV room where you push a button and a big screen comes down to watch movies on. The kitchen is big, it has a marble-topped island for cooking on and lots of gadgets. There's a wooden kitchen table with a glass top. It was Rosie's old table from her art room, so it's covered in paint.

'There's a pool but no gym, Rosie doesn't work out.'

The teen said that life was fairly mundane. 'There wasn't a lot of people coming and going,' Chelsea said. 'No famous people, no big parties. We would stay home and watch movies.

'Rosie would have friends over. Her two close friends from growing up would come over a lot.'

However the past year has been a turbulent one for the family, with Rosie leaving The View and the breakdown of her three-year marriage to Michelle Rounds.

Michelle, 43, and Rosie married in 2012 and adopted a baby girl, Dakota, in January 2013.

'Michelle and I weren't very close,' Chelsea said. 'Occasionally we would go out for coffee. For the most part she would stay in her room at Rosie's house and we wouldn't see her at all.

'She was the one who pushed to adopt my baby sister Dakota. I said to Rosie that I wished she and Michelle would parent Dakota 100 per cent.

'I would have liked to have my parents more in the picture raising me instead of nannies – although my nannies are great people.'

Chelsea claims Rosie kicked her out of the house and that she never ran away. She now lives Barnegat, New Jersey

A happy home? Rosie O'Donnell lives in this Nyack, New York mansion. She bought the house next door and turned it into her 'arts and crafts' studio

Chelsea said Rosie and Michelle's relationship reached breaking point at Thanksgiving last year.

'Rosie and Michelle went away for Thanksgiving with Michelle's family. Me and my siblings were at my grandparents' house with Kelli and Anne.

'Michelle was on a lot of medication. Rosie thought she was misusing her medication, she was sleeping all day, every day.'

In August 2012, Rosie had shared on her blog that Michelle had been diagnosed with desmoid tumors, a rare, cancer-like illness and had undergone surgery two months earlier.

Chelsea said: 'According to Rosie, on the Thanksgiving trip [in 2014], Michelle had said horrible things about me and my siblings. Michelle and her family got up and left Rosie alone in the Florida house in the middle of the night. I guess that was the final straw.

'Rosie told Michelle she needed to move out by a certain day before me and my siblings got home. When we got back, she was gone.'

Rosie also appeared to be stressed out by her return to The View, her daughter said. She had left the show in 2007 but returned to her daytime stint in late 2014 as a co-host alongside Rosie Perez and Nicolle Wallace with Whoopi Goldberg as moderator.

O'Donnell announced her decision to leave in February 2015, citing personal health reasons.

'She and Whoopi really didn't get along and she'd come home every day and talk about how she was stoned on set and she was being really mean to her,' Chelsea said.

'Rosie said 'I've already had a heart attack, I don't need this much stress.'

Since leaving the show, and filing for divorce against Michelle Rounds in February, Rosie has found a new romantic interest in Tatum O'Neal.

Rosie was recently spotted on a romantic break with the Oscar winner at her West Palm Beach vacation home. Tatum posted at the time: '#vacations my wife and I woo woo!!!'

Chelsea says she was never 'missing', but went to go stay with her boyfriend, Steven Sheerer, after Rosie kicked her out just two weeks before her 18th birthday

Chelsea said: 'I mean I know now, I guess Rosie's friends with Tatum. They would FaceTime a lot. I met her once, at the beginning of August, around the time I was getting kicked out of the house.'

The teen said she had been kicked out of the house by Rosie on August 11 – two weeks before her 18th birthday – and denied her mom's widely-circulated social media accounts that she had run away and was mentally ill.

Local police repeated that version of events when they appealed for help to find Chelsea. 

'She told me to leave and take my dog,' Chelsea said.

Chelsea said there were no major bust-ups at home before she was kicked out but that Rosie was aware she wanted to move out when she turned 18.

'Rosie knew I was planning to leave, that's why I think she kicked me out.

'She asked me to talk about what was going on and I didn't want to. So she asked for my phone and my computer. This was hours before she told me to leave.

'I gave them to her. A few hours later, she told me to leave. I wasn't planning to go until I turned 18 on the 24th.

'Rosie said that I was almost 18, and she got all this crap from work, and she didn't want to have to deal with that at home too.'

A week later, on August 18, Rosie made pleas on social media for her daughter's safe return. She posted on Facebook: 'MISSING - my daughter Chelsea and her dog Bear - last seen in nyack ny - may be in NYC.'

In a separate statement, Rosie said the 17-year-old had vanished with her six-month-old therapy dog called Bear. She wrote that her daughter had stopped taking medication for an undisclosed mental illness, adding she was 'in need of medical attention'.

A spokeswoman for the star also said at the time that Chelsea had run away from home and 'Chelsea, like millions of people, lives with mental illness'.

Chelsea said: 'I think she did that because people started asking questions and she didn't want to seem like this bad parent that had kicked her daughter out.

'Putting out there that I am mentally ill was really hurtful. People think I'm this crazy person and as I've said, I have depression and bad anxiety – but it's been something that's gotten a lot better. But these were personal things and I didn't want anyone to know them about me.

'I wouldn't say I'm mentally ill – I would say lots of people struggle with what I have.'

Chelsea said that after being kicked out of home, she went to New Jersey, to the home that her boyfriend, Steven Sheerer, shares with his parents.

Chelsea met Sheerer, 25, on Tinder while still 17 years old. Sheerer was convicted of possessing controlled dangerous substances and child endangerment after a 2013 incident in which he was arrested with heroin and marijuana while in a car with a woman and her two children, aged one and three.

He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years' probation.

When she arrived in New Jersey, Chelsea said that Steve bought her a disposable phone so she would be able to get in contact with her friends and family.

Police said in a statement that Chelsea had used an unknown cell phone to contact her family from August 11 because the teen did not have her own phone or computer with her.

Chelsea was found by police on August 18 at Sheerer's home and she went with them willingly.

'Rosie said that I was missing and I had run away and had me brought home,' Chelsea said.

'I knew the police were looking for me from the news and I was hoping to get home first, so it wouldn't be this big deal. The police were nice though and they brought me back to Nyack.'

A happy reunion with Rosie was not waiting for her, Chelsea claims.

'She had two of my bags packed with clothes. Literally ten minutes after the police had dropped me off at the house, I got in a car and went to a friend's house.

Chelsea  has been spending time with her birth mother Deanna Micolley, here holding a pic of Chelsea as a baby, and says she talks to almost everyday

'I was there for a week and then on my 18th birthday my birth mom [Deanna Micolley] picked me up and I went to her home in Wisconsin.'

Chelsea stayed for a week in Wisconsin where she had the chance to meet her extended biological family who all live in or around the small town of Niagara.

'At first I was stressed out because there was so many people telling me they loved me and hugging me,' she said. 'It was uncomfortable at first but as I got to know everyone, I felt happier and thankful for the chance to have those relationships.

'My whole life all I could do is dream about these people and use my imagination to think about them. Being able to see them and talk to them and get to know who they are, it was really great.'

She talks with Deanna almost every day and says that 'the relationship is growing as we get to know each other'.

The pair were reunited last November after Chelsea reached out to her birth mom.

Chelsea also says that she hopes to get to know her father, Lance Schilling.

'I would like to meet him but Deanna and her family are worried for my safety,' she said.

The teenager returned from Wisconsin to petition a judge in New Jersey to drop charges that had been brought against Steve over their relationship.

Sheerer was charged with third-degree endangering a child and third-degree distribution of obscenity to a minor. The latter was the result of a nude photo Sheerer sent Chelsea, then 17, on Tinder.

Sheerer's attorney, Robert Tarver, told the AP last month that the relationship between the pair was consensual and began on dating app Tinder, where Chelsea had identified herself as  being aged 19.

The charges have been dropped along with the no-contact order after a judge approved Chelsea's request on September 4.

Chelsea says she receives no financial support from Rosie and is living with her boyfriend and his family. She says he's turned his life around after being arrested for drugs

Chelsea is currently living with Steve and his family in Barnegat Township, New Jersey. Mr Sheerer declined to comment to Daily Mail Online.

Chelsea acknowledged her boyfriend's past but said: 'I guess everyone is putting out there he's a bad guy from things that happened in the past but he's not.

'He supports me and I love him. He's not into anything bad now, he works hard.

'Rosie text me the other day and called me a "cash cow". She said Steve's family are talking to people about me for money, it's not nice.

'She's texting me as if Steve is keeping me here and not letting me leave which is not the case. I'm really happy to be here, and happier than I've been in years.'

The 18-year-old said that she had no financial support from Rosie since leaving her home in Nyack.

The teen and her boyfriend plan to move to Wisconsin soon. Chelsea wants to finish her last year of high school online and get her diploma. She then plans to go to community college and study law enforcement.

Chelsea said: 'I'm pretty normal. I guess now I can just prove to Rosie that I am.'