-So, I heard you talk about this on "Howard Stern,"
and it's really a cool story, which is that you became
pen pals with Donald Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen,
and to the point that you actually
went and visited him in prison.
-Yes, I did, in federal prison. -So, how did it start?
How did the pen-pal nature start?
-Well, you know, he sounds like he's one of my brothers.
Excuse me. [ Sneezes ]
No COVID. I swear, no COVID.
I'll give that again in case you want to edit it.
He sounds like he's somebody from my neighborhood,
Michael Cohen.
You know, every time I heard him talk, I'm like,
"What is he?
From the next town over on Long Island?"
Like, he seemed very familiar to me the whole time
that I knew of his existence, which was during
that whole period when Trump was attacking me on,
you know, a daily basis.
And I knew, from knowing a little about
the Trump Organization and how it all worked,
that it was him who did it.
It wasn't Donald Trump sitting there
calling David Pecker and, you know, Donald Trump
making all the plans of how they were going to best attack me.
I knew that it was him, so I kind of looked at him
with fascination the whole time that I was involved
in any way with Trump.
And then when Trump got impeached,
I kept thinking about him.
I'm like, "Imagine that he gets impeached,
he's in The White House, and the guy that told you
to do all this, you're sitting in jail,
and he's sitting in The White House.
How does that feel?"
So I wrote him a letter and I put a little picture
of myself with my daughter in there,
'cause I didn't know if he'd believe that it was me, right?
It was a handwritten letter.
And about a week later, I get an e-mail from him.
Now, I had no idea that they were
allowed to use e-mail, prisoners.
Did you know that?
-I wouldn't have known that.
-I didn't know that either.
So, I was waiting for, you know, mail delivered by the mailman,
and it was an e-mail.
And I was like, "They're giving them e-mail?"
And he was very kind.
He said that he was shocked that I wrote him
and that he apologized and he was sorry for what he did.
And a lot of people had told him that I was
a good person, and he felt so bad.
And, so, then I wrote him back,
and we started sort of writing, you know?
And after a few months of that, he said,
"Would you ever come and visit me?
I'd like to apologize to your face, you know?
And I'd like to talk to you one-on-one,"
which you really can't do in a prison
because there's so many people.
And, so, I go there and I get into this --
what looks like a college campus.
Like, it has no guard gates. It has no towers.
-So he's in a very nice jail.
-He's in what I believe they call Camp Cupcake.
And I walked in, and there he was.
And he looked pretty good, I have to say.
And we sat and we talked.
And next to me was a guy, a friend of Michael's in prison.
And he said, "Oh, Rosie, don't you remember me?"
And I was like, "Give me a hint?"
And he said, "We sat next to each other
at Liza Minnelli's 60th birthday party."
I was like, "What?"
And he was apparently a friend of Liza's
who did some AIDS charity and then got caught
or, you know, doing -- And he's been in there for --
Like, since that birthday party, he's been in jail.
-So you knew multiple people
when you went to visit Michael Cohen.
-I knew that guy, and then another guy
came over to me and said,
"My kid goes to school with your daughter."
-Fantastic. -I was like, "Wow."
-Did you -- Do you feel as though --
You know, obviously, he apologized to you,
Michael Cohen.
He seems like someone who appreciates
what he did wrong and, in general,
seems to be trying to be a better person.
Is that the bounce you got off him when you spoke to him?
-That's completely what I got off him.
And a great thing he told me was that the whole time
he worked for Trump -- He had already made his money
on his own, and the whole time that he worked for Trump,
his wife and kids kept saying, "You got to quit that job.
You got to quit that job." The whole time he worked there.
And he got tears in his eyes and he said,
"I just wish I'd listened to my wife and kids.
If I had listened to my wife and kids,
I wouldn't be here in this position, you know?"
-I can imagine when this is over,
one of the first things you will do is go see a Broadway show.
Is that is an accurate guess?
-That is totally accurate. I can't wait.
That's my big -- You know, I don't know
how long it's gonna take, because those seats
are so cramped together
and they're a lot of money for a ticket.
And I'm worried about what the economy --
all these unemployed people.
It's going to be a tough road after we're out of this,
the viral part of it, when we get back to
the just living, you know?
-You did a reboot of your show
to raise money for The Actors Fund.
You raised over a half-a-million dollars.
That was an incredible gesture.
Is there a way for people, if they want to
make a contribution to that, to still do it now?
-Yeah, The Actors Fund is great.
It serves all actors and people in the industry of theater,
like, you know, stagehands from Minnesota
or people in a touring company.
Like, and it really doesn't just encompass actors,
because I had some people say,
"Oh, you rich actors are taking care of each other."
No, that's not what The Actors Fund does.
So, you can go to theactorsfund.org
and look it up and see what they do.
And they have a donate button there, too,
to help people get through this.
-Thank you so much for being here.
I can't wait to watch on Sunday night.
And it's always a pleasure. Rosie O'Donnell, everyone.
-Thanks, Seth. Good to see you.
-Alright, be well.