Rosie O'Donnell's estranged wife Michelle Rounds leaves party hand-in-hand with busty brunette amid ugly battle for custody of daughter
Rosie O'Donnell's estranged wife Michelle Rounds enjoyed a night out with a busty brunette model on Tuesday just hours after the pair's divorce battle took an ugly turn.
Rounds, a corporate IT headhunter, was pictured leaving an LA restaurant hand-in-hand with Carmen Ortega, a model who once dated Kim Kardashian's ex Reggie Bush.
The duo happily smiled for the cameras as they exited Madera Kitchen and hopped into a car together.
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Night out: Rosie O'Donnell's estranged wife Michelle Rounds left LA restaurant Madera Kitchen with model Carmen Ortega
The outing came the same day Rounds filed for sole custody of the two-year-old daughter she shares with O'Donnell.
The pair, who were married for three years, officially split in February just two weeks after the TV star quit The View to focus on her family and health.
An attorney for Rounds told Page Six: 'My client Michelle Rounds has decided to start proceedings for sole custody of their daughter Dakota, since it is unequivocally in their child's best interest and general welfare.'
Smiling for the camera: The pair happily posed for the paparazzi
Heading home: The pair hopped into the same car after the night out
A spokesperson for O'Donnell, 53, responded by saying: 'This is an absurd and desperate attempt to use a child for her [Rounds'] own gain.'
The former couple, who have a prenuptial agreement, married in June 2012 and adopted Dakota the following year.
They quietly split in November 2014 and were separated for a few months before filing for divorce in February, citing 'an irretrievably broken relationship.'
Nasty split: Rosie O'Donnell and Rounds are battling over the custody of their two-year-old daughter Dakota
O'Donnell and Rounds met in the summer of 2011 at a Starbucks.
They struck up conversation as Rounds had a dog in her arms and O'Donnell was interested in getting another one.
'There's a 4-pound Pomeranian in her arms, and I thought she was a 28-year-old heterosexual girl, because that's what she looked like to me, and she's a 40-year-old gay woman,' O'Donnell previously told ABC News.
Fight for Dakota: Rosie posted this picture of her daughter on Tuesday with the caption 'Do I get a vote'
'My gardar was way off,' she exclaimed. 'But I think if I had known that she was gay, I wouldn't have been brave enough to talk to her.'
O'Donnell was married to her first wife, Kelli Carpenter, a former Nickelodeon marketing executive, in 2004.
They tied the knot in San Francisco just after San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered that marriage licenses be granted to same-sex couples.
Happier times: O'Donnell and Rounds pictured with Dakota in a photo posted to Twitter in May 2013
Their union, along with 4,000 other same-sex couples who married at the time, was later annulled by the California Supreme Court.
O'Donnell and Carpenter, who split in 2007, were raising four children together – Parker, 19, Chelsea, 17, Blake, 15, and Vivienne, 12.
O'Donnell adopted Parker and Chelsea prior to meeting Carpenter. Together they adopted Blake, while Vivienne was born to Carpenter via artificial insemination.
O'Donnell felt that their split had let gay people down.
The Fosters star told Nightline in 2011: 'It seemed to me like something inconceivable and the fact that it occurred was the hardest thing I've ever dealt with as an adult.'
Flashback: The Fosters star and former wife Kelli Carpenter pictured with their four adopted children - Vivienne, Chelsea, Blake, and Parker in New York City in 2010
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