EXCLUSIVE: 'On vacation with my wife - woo woo!' Tatum O'Neal's public profession of passion for Rosie O’Donnell as they relax at talk star's new multi-million Florida love nest

• Both recovering from minor surgery, Tatum and Rosie are enjoying much-needed R&R at Rosie's new waterfront home in West Palm Beach, Florida
• The house sits on 180 feet of waterfront and boasts a master suite with a soaking tub, vanities with built-in televisions, a massage room and two walk-in closets
• Daily Mail Online revealed that Rosie and Tatum are a couple in love earlier this month
• Tatum is the daughter of actor Ryan O'Neal and the ex-wife of tennis star John McEnroe
• She stayed at Rosie's compound in Nyack, NY, in early August 
• The couple went to Broadway musical Hamilton together and ate at Da Silvano restaurant in Manhattan
• Tatum announced last May that she was 'dating mostly women'  and said 'women are the most amazing creatures on earth' 

By Martin Gould In West Palm Beach, Florida For Dailymail.com

Published: 10:11 EST, 16 September 2015 | Updated: 15:38 EST, 17 September 2015

Lovebirds Rosie O'Donnell and Tatum O'Neal are close to going public with their clandestine affair as the two are on a romantic Florida vacation, Daily Mail Online has learned exclusively.

The couple have consistently tried to cover up their growing love following Daily Mail Online's September 2 exclusive that revealed they are an item.

But now, as both recover from minor surgery, they are enjoying much-needed R&R at Rosie's new waterfront home in West Palm Beach, Florida, Daily Mail Online has learned.

Tatum - who first announced in May that she now likes to date women -  posted on Instagram late on Tuesday  '#vacations my wife and I woo woo!!!' She also shared a picture of the Intracoastal Waterway taken from Rosie's property.The post has since been removed.

Twice-married Rosie has previously jokingly referred to Tatum as her wife.

Rosie and Tatum have been together since the summer. They went together to see the new Broadway musical Hamilton in early August and later shared a meal and a bottle of wine at Da Silvano restaurant in New York.

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Fun in the sun: Both recovering from minor surgery, Tatum and Rosie are enjoying much-needed R&R at Rosie's new waterfront home in West Palm Beach, Florida. They were together at Rosie's Nyack home in August and dined at Da Silvano restaurant in Manhattan

Love shack: Rosie's near $5 million home is located on the Instracoastal waterway in West Palm Beach and has a private swimming pool and spa

Last night Tatum posted on Instagram that she and  her 'wife' are on vacation (left) with a picture of her view. She didn't say where the photo was taken but it was clearly taken from the same spot as a photograph of the property taken when it was for sale. The post has since been taken down

At the time, Rosie's representative, Cindi Berger, adamantly denied the two 50-somethings are dating, telling Daily Mail Online: 'They've been friends for several years since they met in Chicago when Rosie did a show for Own and Tatum did a docu series for OWN.' — the Oprah Winfrey Network.

Many news outlets, including TMZ and the New York Daily News accepted Berger at her word, running articles denying the couple was dating. Tatum linked to those reports on her Facebook and Twitter pages.

But Daily Mail Online has learned that Tatum arrived at Rosie's Florida six-bedroom spread, which the talk-show titan bought for $4.975 million in July, on Tuesday.

However on one of their first days of what they had hoped would be a sun-and-fun-filled trip together was ruined when Florida was hit by heavy rain, thunder and lightening.

Both Rosie, 53, and Tatum, 51, are in need of downtime as they each are recovering from health scares — Rosie had a minor heart procedure in New York at the beginning of the month, the same time that Tatum was under the knife for a second operation on her knee in Los Angeles, Daily Mail Online has confirmed.

This is understood to be the first time the couple has had an opportunity to be together since the simultaneous surgery.

Rosie has long been a fan of Florida. Before buying the new house in West Palm Beach last month, she owned a home on posh Star Island off Miami Beach but when the area became too busy she moved to Sarasota and then sold that for $5.3 million

Rosie's new estate is walled and gated. It was built in 1957 but has been updated

The house is 7,600 square feet and the master suite has a soaking tub, vanities with built-in televisions, a massage room and two walk-in closets 

The house sits on over an acre with about 180 feet of prime waterfront on the Intracoastal Waterway

Tatum, who has three grown children from her marriage to tennis great John McEnroe, announced she was now 'dating mostly women' in an interview with People magazine in May. 'Women are the most amazing creatures on earth,' she said.

'They're gentle and also more intelligent than the men that I've met recently.'

She said at the time: 'I don't have a steady right now, but I look forward to it.'

Tatum expanded on her new-found sexuality in a piece she wrote in the September issue of Harper's Bazaar. She said she hadn't dated a man in two and a half years. 'In the physical sense, I'm not attracted to men right now at all,' she wrote.

O'Neal, who won an Oscar aged just 10 for her role in Paper Moon, has fought a life-long battle with heroin. She said she had experimented with women in the past, but it is only now she is drug-free that she has gone further.

'Now I'm clean and aware and alive and interested in the world, saying: "Dating women is exciting to me, and this is turning me on."

'I dated in the heterosexual world up until about four years ago, when I started thinking about dating women — just thinking about it.'

She said she was in her hair salon and saw a couple of pretty assistants. 'I said: "I want to go on a date with her!"

'I finally decided to pursue it last year,' added O'Neal. 'I went to a Super Bowl party…and I saw this hot beautiful woman in her mid-30s serving drinks. She was kind of tough and sassy. I got her number and I think she called me, or I called her — I can't remember — and we went on a date.'

She said they dated for a couple of months but her friend wanted to get more serious. 'But it was too soon for me,' wrote Tatum.

Tatum, who has three grown children from her marriage to tennis great John McEnroe, announced she was now 'dating mostly women' in an interview with People magazine in May. 'Women are the most amazing creatures on earth,' she said

Tatum is recovering from knee surgery Rosie had another procedure

Looks like Rosie got some get well flowers before she headed down south from her digs in Nyack, NY

'Then there was this actress I flirted with for a little bit, but I think she was with somebody else at the time.

'More recently I met this adorable girl through another acquaintance, and she and I were talking, FaceTiming and stuff, but she's a little young for me. I'm not going to date so many 30-year-olds because there's not enough life experience. I'm not just interested in sex, you know. There needs to be a little bit more to the relationship.

'But it's a whole new world for me,' she added. 'It's exhilarating.'

Tatum said she did not believe she had a 'type' of woman. 'I don't want to be so superficial to say that I'm looking for someone beautiful, but beauty is inside and out, it really is. She could be a brilliant scientist or a gorgeous model. It could be that my brain is attracted to her brain.

'Sometimes I'm attracted to a woman who's tall and skinny because that's what I want to look like.'

She also said she likes women with 'a sense of self, a sense of strength,' and also mentioned good personality and perfume and said 'great style would be a factor.'

Since they have been together, Rosie and Tatum have regularly retweeted each other's Twitter messages and news about themselves. On August 21, Rosie posted a link to Tatum's Harper's Bazaar piece.

And Tatum has retweeted several messages critical of presidential candidate Donald Trump who has attacked Rosie for her looks. Trump's Florida headquarters, Mar-a-Lago lies some four miles south of Rosie's new home across the Intracoastal in Palm Beach.

New squeeze: Rosie O'Donnell looks particularly happy at the opening of the Broadway play Hamilton on August 6 and no wonder - she was with her new girlfriend, Oscar-winning actress Tatum O'Neal

Since they have been together, Rosie, 53, and Tatum, 51, have regularly retweeted messages and news about themselves. On August 21, Rosie posted a link to Tatum's Harper's Bazaar piece in which she talks about being turned on by women

The two women have more in common than meets the eye. Both come from an Irish background and were largely brought up by their abusive fathers. 

Rosie was just 10 when her mom Roseann died of breast cancer, while Tatum's mother, actress Joanna Moore lost custody of her children due to her drug and alcohol abuse when her daughter was six.

'I didn't have a mother figure. I didn't have anyone to nurture me,' she told NBC's Stone Phillips in 2004. Moore died in 1997.

Both had difficult relationships with their dads. Tatum says Ryan O'Neal hit her and emotionally abused her. 

He even hit on her at his partner Farrah Fawcett's funeral, not recognizing her as he hadn't seen her for so long, he admits. Tatum no longer speaks to him.

Rosie has spoken about abuse from her alcoholic father Edward, but publicly forgave him during an appearance on Piers Morgan's CNN show in 2012. 'He had a very tough childhood, an alcoholic, abusive father and never really got the help that I think every person needs when they have lived through that as a child,' she said.

'He had a very tough childhood, an alcoholic, abusive father and never really got the help that I think every person needs when they have lived through that as a child,' she said.

'The worst thing that can happen to anyone is to become what you loathe and he had a lot of problems in his own life, never mind being faced with raising these five small children.'

Edward O'Donnell died on August 23, the day before Rosie's adopted daughter Chelsea — who had gone missing and was later found hiding in the attic of a convicted heroin dealer who said he had met her through the Internet dating service Tinder — announced she was leaving Rosie to go back to her birth mother in Wisconsin.

Rosie has been married twice since she came out as a lesbian in 2002. Her first marriage to Kelli Carpenter fell apart after three years when Carpenter moved out, leaving Rosie with four children — three adopted and one that Kelli had through artificial insemination.

She then married Michelle Rounds in 2012 and they adopted one child. They split in November last year.

Rosie has been married twice since she came out as a lesbian in 2002. Her first marriage to Kelli Carpenter fell apart after three years. Rosie  married Michelle Rounds in 2012 and they split in November last year

O'Neal married tennis star John McEnroe In 1986. The couple, who had  three children together, divorced in 1994. Because of O'Neal's serious drug  problems McEnroe obtained custody of the children in 1998

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