Rosie O'Donnell on Who Do You Think You Are?: "Nobody Said Mom in That House from 1973 On — This Show Gave Me a Piece of Her I Never Had Before"

Rosie O'Donnell — comedian, actress, and talk show host — appeared on NBC's genealogy documentary series Who Do You Think You Are? (Fridays at 8 p.m. Premier Guide Miami sat down to find out what that means — and what comes next.

Rosie O'Donnell — comedian, actress, and talk show host — appeared on NBC's genealogy documentary series Who Do You Think You Are? (Fridays at 8 p.m. ET), with her episode airing February 18. O'Donnell, who lost her mother to cancer when she was 10 years old, traced her mother's Irish Catholic roots in Jersey City with her brother Eddie.

On why she wanted to do the show: "I didn't really know very much about my family history at all. She died in '73 and it was never really spoken about in any way. Nobody mentioned my mother after she died in 1973. It was like Lord Voldemort — you couldn't say the name. Nobody said mom in that house or mommy or mother from 1973 on. A traditional kind of Irish Catholic way to deal with tragedy or emotions was to ignore that they existed."

On what she discovered: "The most shocking thing I found out about my family was just the amount of suffering they endured. When I spoke to the producers before we started they said, 'What would be the most devastating thing for you?' I said, 'I guess I don't want to find out that they lived a life like Angela's Ashes, the Frank McCourt book.' And they just sort of nodded and didn't say anything. And I came to find out it was very similar, if not even harder than the life Frank McCourt lived."

On the mystery photograph: "There was a story of a photo that hung in our house my entire life in the den. Whenever we would ask my grandmother who is that picture, she would never say. Nobody ever knew who this was but this photo was up there our whole life. It was like a photo from the late 1800s and a kind of Victorian almost look. We found out who that woman was and what her story was and how she was related to us. It is a fairly miraculous tale and pretty shocking as well. She died a pretty tragic death and I was very shocked to find out the story of the mystery woman in our house."

On what the show gave her: "It gave me a piece of my mom that I never had access to before, so I'm really glad that I did it. I met some people who knew her when she was a child, some cousins of mine that I didn't know I had. The stories of her life and her father — who I knew nothing about — really got to me emotionally and filled in some empty holes that I had that I wanted filled."

On returning to television and Miami: "I'm thrilled to be going back to TV to do a new Rosie show for the Oprah Winfrey Network. Oprah Winfrey is an epic talent and for her to ask me was a huge honor. It won't be four or five celebrities an hour bringing them through promoting something. It will be much more single-topic oriented. As for Miami — I love it in Miami and I will eventually live there for good."

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