Rosie O’Donnell Feels ‘Hopeful’ About Kathy Griffin’s Voice Recovery

Rosie O’Donnell has shared that she is “hopeful” her friend Kathy Griffin will regain her original voice, after her vocal cords were damaged during surgery following her lung cancer diagnosis.

Comedian Griffin, 61, announced that she was diagnosed with the disease in August 2021, before then revealing in November that she was cancer-free.

Over the past several months, she has expressed fears that her voice may never go back to what it was, after it was altered to a higher pitch than usual as a result of her treatment.

Rosie O’Donnell is pictured left on November 18, 2019, in New York City. Kathy Griffin is pictured inset on September 21, 2022, in Beverly Hills, California. O’Donnell said that she is “hopeful” Griffin will regain her original voice after her vocal cords were damaged during lung cancer surgery. Gary Gershoff/Getty Images;/Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

In a TikTok post shared last Wednesday, Griffin revealed that those concerns remained following a visit to a laryngeal surgeon.

“The news isn’t great about my voice,” she said in the video, which can be viewed at the top of this article. “I may have kind of maxed out about how much my vocal apparatus can recover from the damage that was done during the lung cancer surgery.

“But we’re gonna try another injection in my left vocal cord first, which is now paralyzed. And then the decision will be, next time do I get the full arytenoid surgery and then a permanent, what they call an implant to my vocal cord. Not the fun place to get an implant.”

Mulling that her current voice may represent a new normal in her life, Griffin added: “How do I get people to just deal with this being my new voice?”

On Sunday, fellow comedian O’Donnell, 60, shared a TikTok video that showed her hanging out in her oceanside home with Griffin as they prepared guacamole and chips.

Kathy Griffin is pictured on June 12, 2022, in Los Angeles, California. The comedian has been sharing posts about her health journey after she was diagnosed with lung cancer in August 2021. Michael Kovac/Getty Images for the Critics Choice Real TV Awards

While the clip, which can be viewed at the top of this article, showed the two engaged in light-hearted conversation, one of O’Donnell’s followers commented: “Rosie, as a friend, how do you feel about Kathy’s voice recovery?”

Giving a single word answer, O’Donnell simply said that she was “hopeful.”

In August, Griffin wrote on Twitter about the surgeon who had removed a portion of her lung. Stating that her situation “sucks,” Griffin said of the surgeon: “He ruined my vocal chords & my arytenoids permanently! My voice is my living.”

She said she wished she had had chemotherapy and radiation instead of surgery.

Back in March, the Suddenly Susan star wrote in an Instagram post that she was “sick to death of not having my voice and terrified it will never get better because they said it would be better by now and it isn’t.”

Griffin revealed that she was cancer-free during a November 2021 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, where she also explained why her voice sounded different.

She told host Jimmy Kimmel: “I had surgery. You’re not going to believe this… I’ve never smoked but I got lung cancer. In August, I had half of my left lung removed I’m not even kidding.”

Explaining that the use of an intubation tube had affected her vocal cord, she quipped: “So now I’m like Minnie Mouse meets Marilyn Monroe.”

“It will heal, but I’m sort of enjoying [my voice],” she continued. “I’m a good two octaves higher, I think… It’s higher than Mariah Carey, I know that.”