Deanna Micoley is the biological mother of Rosie O’Donnell’s adopted 17-year-old daughter, Chelsea. (Facebook)
The biological mother of Rosie O’Donnell’s 17-year-old daughter, Chelsea, claims that the actress “stole” her daughter when she was a baby.
Deanna Micoley, 38, spoke out about her daughter’s adoption in March in an interview with the National Enquirer. Chelsea O’Donnell, who has recently been in communication with Micoley, was reported missing by her adopted mother on Tuesday. Rosie O’Donnell, 53, says Chelsea, who has mental health issues and needed to take medication, ran away on August 11 with her therapy dog. Chelsea O’Donnell was found safe later Tuesday night, Rosie said on Twitter.
Chelsea, born Kayla Rae Schilling in Michigan, was adopted by Rosie O’Donnell when she was 2-months-old.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Micoley Posted on Facebook About Her Daughter’s Disappearance
(Facebook)
After Rosie O’Donnell announced that Chelsea was missing, Deanna Micoley posted on her Facebook page, also calling for the girl to be found.
“Please find my daughter!!!! I wish I had her here!!!!,” Micoley wrote.
Micoley told RADAR Online on Tuesday that she didn’t know Chelsea was missing:
I’m afraid of who she’s with. I don’t know where she would have gone. Don’t know who she’s with or who her friends are. I’m very worried. Extremely worried. I wish she would have contacted me. I would have grabbed her and asked questions later.
Rosie should have been paying closer attention to my daughter. There is nothing I can do but sit here and wait and pray everything is okay.
Micoley said she last spoke to Chelsea on August 8, three days before she went missing.
dude was asking for u today … dude #urFAMILY #call http://t.co/w9UTpGpfjI
Chelsea O’Donnell was reported missing from her Nyack, New York, home, but police there did not immediately classify it as a missing persons report. She is not believed to be in danger and may have gone to the New York City area. Rosie said she believes her daughter stopped taking her medication. Rosie O’Donnell said in a post on her website:
She was wearing a black sweatshirt hoodie, dark ripped blue jeans, women’s grey converse sneakers and a black backpack. Chelsea has a large tattoo on her right side of a dream catcher with the word ‘Breathe.’ She left home with her 6 month old therapy dog named Bear. The dog is a 9 lbs brown and black terrier. Chelsea stopped taking her medicine and is in need of medical attention. Any information please contact authorities at 845-358-0206 or 911.
Rosie O’Donnell tweeted later Tuesday that her daughter was found.
chelsea has been found and is safe in police custody – thank u all for the help and light #missingchildren
No other details have been released.
2. She Said She Was Forced to Give Up Her Daughter
Micoley told the National Enquirer that she was forced by her ex-husband to give up Chelsea, then named Kayla, two months after giving birth to her.
She told the tabloid, “Rosie O’Donnell stole my baby, but I don’t want her money — I just want my daughter back! I believe Rosie O’Donnell knew that I was in no condition to sign away my parental rights to my daughter! She did the worst thing one woman can do to another woman — take her child!”
3. She Admits She Used Drugs & ‘May Not Have Been the Best Mother’
(Twitter)
Micoley admitted she was a drug user at the time of her daughter’s birth. She was 20 at the time.
“I may not have been the best mother back then. I did drugs and I have a criminal record because of it,” Micoley told the National Enquirer. “But I surely didn’t deserve to have my baby stolen from me!”
Court records show that Micoley, then Deanna Schilling, pleaded guilty to felony burglary and misdemeanor theft in December 1997. She was sentenced to six months in jail and five years probation.
In 1996, she was sentenced to seven months in jail after pleading guilty to two counts of theft.
Micoley was arrested again in 2010 in Wisconsin and charged with disorderly conduct, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a firearm by a felon. The gun charge was dismissed, but Micoley pleaded no contest to the disorderly conduct and drug charges. She was sentenced to three days in jail.
4. They Reconnected Last Year After Chelsea Reached Out to Micoley’s Family
Chelsea O’Donnell (Twitter)
Micoley said she didn’t know her daughter had been adopted by Rosie O’Donnell until last year, when Chelsea reached out to Micoley’s father. They began to communicate through text messages for the first time, according to the National Enquirer interview.
Micoley also claimed that Chelsea said she had “issues” with her mother.
“I believe Rosie has abandoned her,” Micoley told the tabloid. “Since about the age of 12, Rosie’s basically shipped Chelsea off to different boarding schools.”
A spokesperson for the Rosie O’Donnell, Cindi Berger, told Inside Edition, “It is awful that this woman decided to go public … Rosie LEGALLY adopted Chelsea … As an advocate of adoption, Rosie is grateful to all birth mothers everywhere and she hopes that the National Enquirer did not pay this woman.”
On August 18, the same day Chelsea was reported missing, Rosie O’Donnell responded to a fan’s post about adoption on the AskRo section of her website.
The fan wrote, “My adopted son (20 years old) found his bio Mom on Facebook. He’s so young for his age, has FASD. She bought him a new phone and now she’s his hero. I so worry he is going to get hurt. She was neglectful and abusive, he was taken away from her when he was 5 years old. I’m worried she will fill his head with lies that he will believe.”
Rosie responded:
i understand
totally
this is hard
just keep loving him
5. Micoley Is Now Re-Married & Is Raising Her 4 Other Children
Deanna Micoley is now re-married and lives in Wisconsin with her husband. They have four children, according to her Facebook page.
