Rosie O'Donnell Says Menendez Brothers Should Be Freed, Has Grown 'Very Close' with Lyle

Just 18 and 21 years old at the time of their 1993 trial for the 1989 murders of their parents, José and Mary Louise, that final trial notably limited the defense's testimony regarding sexual abuse allegations.

The brothers did not deny the murders, but the abuse allegations were a key part of the defense's reasoning for their actions, arguing that the murders were not premeditated, but an act of self-defense after lifetime of abuse at the hands of their father.

The brothers were convicted on two counts of second degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. They were subsequently sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In a new TikTok posted over the weekend, O'Donnell says that she has "known" the brothers were innocent for years now, referring to a letter she received from Lyle all the way back in 1996 that said as much.

She said the letter "basically said, 'I know you know, and I hope we could connect,'" she recalled. "And you know, he was right. I did know that they were innocent. I did know that those were boys who had been incested."

"Why I knew, and how I knew -- Lyle also knew," she continued. "I didn't write him back because I felt afraid, and I wasn't ready to touch the subject, and you know, it was 1996."

What O'Donnell was referring to by mentioning the year was that though the '90s still, "people weren't ready to accept the fact that boys too get raped -- sometimes by their fathers -- and as a culture, we ridiculed them."

She referred to the brothers becoming fodder for recurring segments and parodies on late-night programming like "Saturday Night Live" and Jay Leno's "Tonight Show." "Everyone thought this was a funny target," she said.

"Kids who had been molested since the age of preschool, fighting back and standing up, and people thought they just wanted the money," O'Donnell added. "They had the money. They didn't need the money. Money was not what it was about."

She did finally get up the nerve to connect with him, even going so far as to talk with the older brother on the telephone after she'd watched and posted about Peacock's documentary, "Menéndez & Menudo: Boys Betrayed."

As part of that documentary, Roy Rossello, one member of the famed boy alleged that José Menéndez, an RCA Records executive at the time, assaulted him when he was a teen.

She said that she's become "very close" with Lyle and praised how they've spent their "30-plus years in jail," while asking when it was time for people to start believing their story?

"So, we believe them now because of Roy from Menudo? Do we believe now because of the letter Erik sent his cousin eight months before the murder?" she asked. "It's time. I believe them."

"They were horribly abused by their parents, they did the unthinkable, which had been done to them day after day after day, and they paid the price for that," she emphasized.

Chatting with the "On the Reycord" podcast last week, as noted by ET, O'Donnell said that she believes society would have handled this narrative differently had the younger brother been a sister, instead.

"f Erik, at 17 or 18, when he told [Lyle] that the father had been doing this to him for many years," she argued, "if it had been a girl; that his sister was being raped by the father; that would've been much easier for our culture in the '90s to understand why the older brother would've acted in the way that he did."

She also made sure to note that "nobody is condoning the violence or the murder of their parents," but that there should be consideration both for the "extenuating circumstances" that were disallowed in their convicting trial, and for the fact they've already spent 30 years behind bars.

Lawyers for the Menéndez brothers claimed last month, per CNN, that there is new evidence that should be enough to overturn their life sentences. They are referring to the letter O'Donnell mentioned, sent by Erik to his cousin detailing the alleged abuse, as well as Rossello's allegation of abuse against José.

The case is also set to be the subject of Ryan Murphy's latest season of "Monster" on Netflix. The streamer also has "exclusive access to Lyle and Erik Menéndez for a forthcoming documentary feature," which will likely include these latest developments.