Revealed: Rosie ODonnells unlikely friendship with Lyle Menendez as she joins calls for them to be freed

Rosie ODonnell has enjoyed a 28 year friendship with the killer Menendez brothers as calls for their release from prison grow.

Erik and Lyle, then just 18 and 21, killed their parents Jose and Mary Louise Kitty Menendez inside their million-dollar Beverly Hills home in August 1989. 

During their criminal trial, the duo claimed their father had molested them since they were children - allegations that were supported by relatives at the time.

I believe them, ODonnell said in a June 2023 TikTok video discussing the case.

Lyle first wrote ODonnell in 1996, after she defended he and his brother on a segment of Larry King Live.

It basically said I dont know you and I hope we can connect, she said, admitting she felt too afraid to reply to the initial letter. 

Rosie ODonnell has become a staunch and outspoken advocate for the Menendez brothers after striking up a friendship with Lyle from behind bars

Erik and Lyle, then just 18 and 21, killed their parents Jose and Mary Louise Kitty Menendez inside their million-dollar Beverly Hills home in August 1989

They were horribly abused by their parents, the chat show host and actress said.

They did the unthinkable, which had been done to them day after day after day. And they paid the price for that.

Speaking to Variety, ODonnell said she visited the duo at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego last year.

I saw Lyle and gave him a hug, she said.

Then Erik came over to me, hugged me, and whispered in my ear, Thank you for loving my brother. It was very, very moving to me.

ODonnell said she reconnected with Lyle via his wife, Rebecca Sneed, and that they now talk a lot.

I told them I would do what I could with whatever dwindling fame I have to bring light to their story. 

Jose and Kitty were shot 14 times with 12-gauge shotguns in their million-dollar Beverly Hills home in August 1989

About two dozen members of the family and defense lawyer Mark Geragos held press conference on Wednesday as they ask for a revised sentence which could see the Menendez brothers walk free

The brothers have now spent 34 years behind bars for the chilling double murder of their parents.

They made a frantic call to police claiming they returned home from the theatre to find their parents had been slaughtered, prompting fears within one of Americas wealthiest communities that a murderer was on the run.

Police announced they were arresting Lyle Menendez in March 1990 - seven months after the crime.

They said he was motivated by greed. The brothers stood to inherit $14million from their parents, and set about spending it shortly after their parents deaths.

Lyle bought a Porsche Carrera, Rolex watch and two restaurants, while his brother hired a full-time tennis coach to begin competing in tournaments.

In all, they spent $700,000 between the time of their parents deaths and their arrests in March 1990.

They were sentenced to life in prison in 1996, the two had not seen each other since

Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted of the murder of their parents, Jose and Kitty, in 1996 after their first trial was declared a mistrial

But Erik insisted in the a Netflix documentary it is absurd to suggest he was having a good time in the immediate aftermath of the murders.

On Wednesday, District Attorney George Gascón said the Menendez brothers dont deserve to die in jail, prompting renewed hope from loved ones that they could soon be resentenced, in a move which would all but guarantee their imminent release.

More than a dozen Menendez relatives and defense lawyer Mark Geragos held a press conference in Los Angeles on Wednesday asking fora revised sentence, which could see Erik, 53, and Lyle, 56, walk free.

If they were the Menendez sisters they would not be in custody, Geragos said of the treatment the brothers received in their trial for the murders of their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez. 

The family argued that at the time of the brothers trial, the public did not understand sexual abuse of boys. 

The two men were convicted of first-degree murder and were sentenced to life without parole in 1996 after a retrial

Chilling crime scene photos showing the blood-soaked couch where Jose Menendez was shot

Kittys sister Joan Andersen VanderMolen said: Their actions, while tragic, were the desperate response of two boys trying to survive the unspeakable cruelty of their father.

The truth is, Lyle and Erik were failed by the very people who should have protected them—their parents, the system, and society at large.

The family introduced a coalition called Justice for Eric and Lyle and spoke of how the brothers have lived a life of purpose in their 35 years in prison - even though they did not expect to ever be freed.

If a jury at any potential re-trial finds them guilty of voluntary manslaughter instead of murder, it would trigger their immediate release as they have already served more than the maximum sentence.