The actress and TV personality is a mother to five children, including Chelsea, now 17, who was adopted as a baby in the 1990s.

Chelsea was given up for adoption at two months old by Deanna Micoley, who was battling a drug problem at the time, and now Micoley has reached out to O'Donnell asking for contact with the teenager.

Micoley, who claims Chelsea was the first to make contact with her, tells U.S. tabloid the National Enquirer, "I was in no condition to sign away my parental rights to my daughter... (When Chelsea tracked me down) it was the moment I'd been waiting and praying for the last 17 years: I had found my precious daughter!"

The pair is believed to have been in touch online, and O'Donnell's representative Cindi Berger has insisted the star has "encouraged and supported Chelsea's desire to communicate with her birth mother," and finds it "disappointing" that Micoley has gone public with her story.