Mary Rose Donahue: Who is Phil Donahue’s daughter?

Mary Rose Donahue is the daughter of Phil Donahue. Mary Rose Donahue’s father is credited with pioneering the daytime television talk show format. The American an American media personality, writer, and film producer is the creator and host of The Phil Donahue Show which was later known simply as Donahue. His shows have often touched on issues that divide liberals and conservatives in the United States, such as abortion, consumer protection, civil rights, and war issues.

Mary Rose Donahue: Bio Summary

Who is Phil Donahue’s daughter?

Mary Rose Donahue is the only daughter of  Phil Donahue and his ex-wife Marge Cooney. Though it is unclear the exact year she was born, Mary Rose and her four siblings-  Jim Donahue, Michael Donahue, Kevin Donahue, and Daniel Donahue- spent their early years in Dayton when their father was at the start of his broadcast career, and developing his history-making talk show.

ALSO, READ; Phil Donahue Children- Michael Donahue, Jim Donahue, Daniel Donahue, Kevin Donahue, Mary Rose Donahue

“Their kids played with my kids everyday from the time they were in kindergarten to the time they were freshmen in high school,” – a neighbor and close friend of the Donahue family, Maddi Breslin of Centervile told Daytondailynews. In 1967, Phil began what was to become Donahue on WLWD in Dayton.  In 1974, Donahue relocated his show to Chicago. Mary Rose Donahue’s parents,  Phil Donahue and Marge Cooney were college sweethearts who got married in 1958.

The duo remained separated for 10 months and then got back together, which was done for the sake of their children according to Famoussoul. Things didn’t seem to go smoothly and hence after 4 months of reconciliation, they separated. After 17 years after they tied the knot, they called their marriage a quit. The divorce settlement gave Cooney custody of the daughter- Mary Rose and to Donahue the four boys. Phil later got married to his current wife actress Marlo Thomas and the siblings had a stepmother. Donahue and Marlo didn’t have any children.

Actress Marlo Thomas always knew she had someone she could talk to, joke with, and argue with, and nothing could ever harm that relationship. So from the onset, she decided that was the kind of relationship she wanted with her stepchildren. She says:

“From the very first day, I decided that I was not going to try to be a “mother” to Phil’s children in the traditional sense — they already had a mom — but, instead, to be their friend.”

More than four decades later, Thomas says the friendships she established with her stepchildren have remained just as strong as they were so many years before. Mary Rose Donahue, her brother, stepmother, and father has been spotted at various events bonded together as a family.

Marlo Thomas recalled when Mary Rose Donahue returned from a year in Paris, during which she had received numerous bundles from her and Donahue and her own mother- Marge Cooney. When they asked her if she’d gotten them, the actress remembers, “she said, ‘Oh, yes, it was so wonderful, to know that all three of my parents loved me.‘ “, “Of course, I wept,” Marlo Thomas told Washingtonpost.

ALSO, READ; Jim Donahue: What happened to Phil Donahue’s son?

Though Mary Rose Donahue is the daughter of a famous personality. She has been very private about most aspects of her life. She has been living most of her life away from the cameras. In 2014, her brother, James Donahue, 51, died suddenly from a burst aortic aneurysm.  He lived and practiced law in Honolulu.