Rosie O’Donnell met with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex abuse and lined up to sing “I Am Woman” with them after a chat.
O’Donnell posted a video of herself sitting down to talk with Epstein survivors to her Instagram account Thursday. The survivors – dressed in all white – sat in a circle as O’Donnell apologized for what they went through and the fact that the United States is “so f–ked up” but insisted that they help to change how people dealt with child sex abuse.
“I know it’s been very hard for you and with very little support,” O’Donnell said. “And I’m sorry that our country is so f–ked up that this is what you have to live through, because you are all heroes. And you’re going to change how the world deals with child sex abuse.”
She added in the caption for the post: “After the corrupt AG (Trump’s former personal lawyer) stated no men would be charged in the Epstein files — despite mountains of evidence — I called some Epstein survivors [and] asked them to sing with me a powerful Helen Reddy song that taught me at 10 years old to use my voice.”
The video concluded with the survivors and O’Donnell standing in a line and holding hands while they sang Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman.” The video also included pictures of the survivors when they were young along with messages “Support Survivors” and “The Epstein Files.”
O’Donnell is coming off a strong week guest-hosting on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” She was able to use the larger platform to strike back at Donald Trump after he renewed attacks on her when he took office for his second term.
“I’ve really enjoyed my time here. Thanks to everyone who’s been watching this week, especially the hungry, hungry hypocrite in the White House,” O’Donnell ripped. “Kind of weird to think he spent more nights with me this week than Melania [Trump].”
She added: “Most of all, I’d like to thank Jimmy Kimmel for inviting me to do this and for reminding everyone that we have the right to free speech in this country, whether Orange Voldemort likes it or not.”
Her week wasn’t just a success for viewers but also for ratings. She averaged a total viewership of 2.17 million and a demo viewership of 237,000 viewers, according to live-plus-three-day viewing figures from Nielsen reported by LateNighter, which put her as the highest-rated summer substitute of the year.
O’Donnell’s week of hosting marks the ABC late night show’s most-watched week in both measures since mid-June, before Kimmel tossed the show over to a suite of guest hosts, including Tiffany Haddish, Anthony Anderson, Ike Barinholtz and Colman Domingo.
