in brief: cosmo stopped rosie o’donnell from coming out in 1992

Actor-comedian Rosie O’Donnell has revealed she would have come out ten years earlier if late US Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown hadn’t canned parts of a 1992 magazine article.

She told web series Mondays with Marlo she believed Gurley Brown was trying to protect her.

‘At that time it would have been a huge issue, I think it’s changed a lot,’ O’Donnell said.

The news comes as more celebrities open up to the public about their place in the LGBTIQ community, including the recent coming out of Juno star Ellen Page.

O’Donnell came out in 2002 during a performance at Caroline’s Comedy Club in New York.

She told Marlo Thompson prior to this, everyone in her life was made aware despite not making the announcement in her professional life.

‘It’s just that at that time nobody printed it,’ she said.

‘It’s much more common [now] and people are much more used to it.’