Rosie O'Donnell reveals long friendship with Lyle Menendez

Rosie O'Donnell has revealed she shares a years-long friendship with convicted murderer Lyle Menendez.

The TV personality explained the convicted felon helped her parent her autistic son, Clay and advised her to apply for a service animal to assist him.

"If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have my child's service dog," Rosie, 63, told Us Weekly in an interview published on Tuesday.

"While I was really trying to decide whether it was morally right for me to apply for a service dog he would say, 'I've been talking to you for two years. I hear Clay every night.'"

Rosie went on to describe her friendship with Lyle as "a primary relationship in my life" and admitted she knew many would find the connection surprising: "I know that sounds strange to people."

Lyle, 57, and his brother Erik, 54, have been incarcerated since 1996, when they were convicted of murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez.

"The fact that he has been in prison for 35 years, he has really worked very hard on knowing how to continue living with only a phone that interrupts you every 20 minutes," Rosie explained as she reflected on her friendship with Lyle.

"He knows how to sort of climb over all the barriers to humanity that prison places you in and go around it. That's what he did with me in a very, very loving and supportive brotherly way."