Rosie O’Donnell’s child was diagnosed with autism at 2. Years later, she believed she had sought out every resource to help. The actor, comedian, TV host and producer had the means and the access. But there was one program she didn’t know about. And it was that program, O’Donnell says, that changed her child’s life. “I had had a child for over a decade who had an autism diagnosis and had never heard that this was a possibility or an option, nor that it had been very effective treatment for these kids,” O’Donnell tells NJ Advance Media. To make it happen, she had to take her own journey. O’Donnell shares her experience in the new documentary “Unleashing Hope: The Power of Service Dogs for Children with Autism." The ABC News film, which is streaming on Hulu, takes viewers inside a Guide Dogs of America program that helps kids who have autism. Before O’Donnell brought home a service dog named Kuma, her child Clay, who uses they/them pronouns, wasn’t interested in leaving the house. Passionate about drawing and digital art, they turned inward creatively, and their art began reflecting darker themes, worrying O’Donnell. “Clay was very isolated and sort of drifting off into their own kind of dissociation,” O’Donnell, 63, says from her cousin’s home in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where she spent Easter. O’Donnell, who lived in Santa Monica during the Los Angeles fires and previously had a home in Saddle River, now calls Ireland home, having moved to Dublin with Clay in January. (Her grandparents lived in Ireland and she is seeking Irish citizenship.) At home, Clay, now 12, did not want to sleep in their own bed. “I couldn’t get them to have a playdate, I couldn’t get them to go out to a restaurant with me,” O’Donnell says. “I was really worried.” A ‘life without’ ... with dogs How did O’Donnell find out about the program that would change Clay’s life? Lyle Menendez. Yes, that Lyle Menendez. He had become friends with O’Donnell in the ’90s after he wrote her a letter following her appearance on “Larry King Live.” O’Donnell had taken an interest in the case of Lyle and his brother Erik Menendez, who are serving life sentences in prison and awaiting a resentencing hearing after they were convicted of killing their parents in 1989. O’Donnell saw the dogs from Guide Dogs of America when she was visiting Lyle Menendez in prison. “I remember thinking ‘How can there be dogs in prison?’” O’Donnell says. But there they were — Labradors and golden retrievers, sitting with their trainers: incarcerated men. “I said ‘You know, I actually have a child who is almost 10 and has autism, and I didn’t even know that this was possible. So on behalf of all the families with autism, I just want to thank you guys for all that you’ve done.’ And the man who was sort of the head of the group said to me ‘this is my 12th dog that I have trained.’” O’Donnell figured the man must have been getting out of prison soon. “He said ‘No, ma’am. I’m life without,’” she says. “And I had never heard that expression before. And I thought to myself ‘life without what?’ And it was without the possibility of parole ... And I thought how profound that was, because life without the possibility, without hope, without the chance of freedom, what kind of a life was that? It was life without. And I got very emotional, and then I decided to apply.” Families of children with autism who apply for the Guide Dogs of America service dogs do not have to pay. The program is free. “I was worrying that perhaps my celebrity would allow me to cut the line, and maybe there were children in more need than my child,” says the Emmy winner, who has a role in the upcoming third season of the “Sex and the City” revival series “And Just Like That” on Max. “But any child that is diagnosed with autism is a possible contender for getting one of these dogs that are completely free of charge for the family,” O’Donnell says. Russell Gittlen, then president of the nonprofit Guide Dogs of America, recommended that O’Donnell speak with parents who had welcomed service dogs into their homes. “I spoke to about five different families, and all of the mothers that I spoke to were unbelievably complimentary and really brought to tears about how different their child became with the addition of this dog, how much love and life and healing it brought to their autistic child, that it made me brave enough to say ‘OK, I will do it,’” O’Donnell says. In order to start the process, she knew she’d have to report to Guide Dogs of America headquarters in Sylmar, Los Angeles for 10 days of training so she could learn how to handle a service dog. “I had never been away from my child for that long, and not even half as long as that,” she says. “I think a weekend was the longest that I had been away from them. So I was really, really worried, and it wasn’t until the day I was supposed to arrive that I decided to go.” It was Menendez who kept encouraging her to give it a chance. “As I was sitting in my garage in Santa Monica, he called me on the phone and said ‘Are you there yet?’ I said ‘I haven’t left.’ And he said ‘Weren’t you supposed to be there an hour ago?’ And I said ‘Yes, but I’m nervous, Lyle, I don’t know, I’ve never been anywhere in the last 10 years without an assistant or someone with me, and I’m worried that Clay is not gonna be OK, and I’m worried that maybe I won’t be good at it’ ... and he said ‘I promise you, this is the right thing, and trust me and believe in this and do it, Ro, because I’ve seen it for 30 years, what these men do with these dogs, and I’ve heard the stories, and I know what is waiting for you if you’re brave enough.’ And it was because of him that we have this dog in our life.” The big change O’Donnell spent those 10 days of dog handler training with other people who had applied for service dogs. They included parents of children with autism, blind and visually impaired people and veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. “I was so overwhelmingly emotionally moved ... I was so touched by the stories and the friendships that I made,” she says. She came home and introduced Clay to Kuma, a dog trained through the program to ground children who have autism when they are confronted with everyday triggers. Clay started wanting to leave the house to help the dog practice commands. And there was more. At night, Clay wanted to stay in their own bed with Kuma. “After I went through the program and I saw the effect it had on my child, I wanted to publicize it in as big a way as I could,” O’Donnell says. “So I went to Russ and said ‘Have you had any other celebrities who have been given a dog and have come and been through this training?’ And he said no.” She asked if she could make a documentary about the program, how it changed Clay, and how it’s benefitted other children with autism, and their families. O’Donnell reached out to a team of fellow producers and friends — South Orange’s Terence Noonan and his producing partner Hilary Estey McLoughlin. Noonan had met O’Donnell in 1996 when he had a job as a researcher on “The Rosie O’Donnell Show,” her popular talk show that ran until 2002. Having much in common with O’Donnell since they both grew up nearby on Long Island, he became a producer on the show, sharing in four of its Daytime Emmy wins. (Estey McLoughlin is also an alum of O’Donnell’s talk show as well as “The View.”) They worked with directors Zeberiah Newman and Michiel Thomas to tell the story of the service dogs, O’Donnell’s family and other children with autism, as well as the incarcerated men who train the dogs. “Most of those people are not getting out,” Noonan tells Advance Media. “They’re there for life. But to see them break down in tears over what these dogs bring to them is really very meaningful.” While correspondence between the trainers and the families who take the dogs home is not a typical part of the program, O’Donnell has heard from the incarcerated man who worked with Kuma. “I had put so much publicity about the dog, with the dog’s name and photos and my child’s photo, on my Instagram that I got an Instagram from Carlos, and he said ‘I’m the one who trained Kuma,’” she says. “And I was very, very moved, and we started writing back and forth to each other, and he sent me a gorgeous Native American beaded necklace for Kuma, a collar for Kuma, and he sent me photos that he had of Kuma when Kuma was a baby, and told me his life story. And we became friends.” Zack Gittlen, vice president of strategy and operations at Guide Dogs of America, says the men who train dogs in prison must have their GEDs and a year of good behavior to participate, and no one who has committed crimes against animals is accepted to the program. The dogs are purpose-bred to become service dogs. When they’re 8 weeks old, they go to live with a puppy raiser, then enter the training program when they’re more than 1 year old. Trainers at prisons in San Diego and outside Sacramento work with the dogs during a period of six to nine months. The men who participate in the program have a reincarceration rate of zero, Gittlen says. Noonan says the documentary could potentially help families of children with autism feel less alone and make them aware of a support system. “I really hope that people who have children who have autism and are feeling hopeless and scared and worried, that they look into this and decide for themselves whether or not this would benefit their family, and I promise them that it will,” O’Donnell says. Kaleb, a boy with autism featured in “Unleashing Hope,” deals with emotional dysregulation. His family talks about how he was kicked out of after-school programs and has had suicidal ideation. When his previous dog died, he took her loss hard and mourned her deeply. After becoming acquainted with Earl, his service dog, he was able to sleep in his own bed. Confronting ‘grossly uninformed’ picture of autism with a different story The debut of “Unleashing Hope” coincides with Autism Acceptance Month. But the film also comes at a time when autism has been in headlines because of remarks from a top government official. Many people with autism and parents of children with autism have spoken out about recent comments made by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the department of health and human services. O’Donnell is one of them. “Robert Kennedy is so grossly uninformed about autism it boggles the mind,” she said in Instagram and Substack posts, quoting his comments and responding with her own. “Autism destroys families, and more importantly, it destroys our greatest resource, which is our children,” Kennedy said. “These are children who should not be suffering like this ... These are kids who will never pay taxes. They’ll never hold a job. They’ll never play baseball. They’ll never write a poem. They’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted.” Clay, O’Donnell said, “has not destroyed my family. She had added overwhelming joy, taught us all patience and compassion. “She has written poems, gone on dates, uses the bathroom unassisted and baseball bores her to death. “Bobby Kennedy’s idea of a life of value is pathetically sad, immature and ignorant,” she said. “He should be ashamed. I am disgusted and disappointed by his painful and insensitive comments about autism spectrum disorder, something he obviously knows nothing about.” On Monday, the National Institutes of Health announced the creation of a registry that would track those with autism as part of Kennedy’s efforts focusing on autism. O’Donnell said Kennedy should resign for his “ableist inaccuracies,” which she called absurd and damaging to the millions of Americans living with autism. “I think that he disgraces the legacy of his last name,” O’Donnell tells NJ Advance Media. “And to think that the founder of Special Olympics (his aunt, Eunice Kennedy Shriver) is related to him makes what he said even more of a disgrace.” O’Donnell and the producers of “Unleashing Hope” included people with autism behind the scenes of their film. Two production assistants are on the autism spectrum, Noonan says. One is Zachary Gindi-Chiafullo, 18, a freshman music major at George Washington University who hails from Monmouth Beach. He scored music for the documentary. “It’s one of the most impactful documentaries I’ve ever seen,” says Gindi-Chiafullo, who also has ADHD. “It touched me deeply.” Seeing how Clay lights up with Kuma really drove the point home. “Service dogs tap the potential to get kids out there and make them feel better about themselves,” he says. Zack Gittlen from GDA says that O’Donnell’s TikTok and Instagram posts about the service dogs have already generated a surge in interest. “Our demand for specifically autism service dogs was through the roof,” he tells NJ Advance Media. O’Donnell has also fundraised for the nonprofit. While her celebrity profile certainly helps get the word out, Gittlen says every applicant is treated the same. “For us, it’s not about having Rosie O’Donnell the celebrity,” he says. “The reality is that child really needed help at that time, and that’s what our dogs do.” Gittlen says the program for children with autism, which formerly served kids up to age 12 and now has an age range of 6 to 9 years old, is currently in need of people who can raise puppies at their homes before they go in for training. The nonprofit relies on private donations. Because of O’Donnell’s visibility, he says some people have been in touch about making estate plans that include the service dog program. For O’Donnell, Guide Dogs of America has become a lasting personal priority. “This will now be the focus of all of my philanthropic endeavors until I’m no longer here,” she says. “Unleashing Hope: The Power of Service Dogs for Children with Autism” is streaming on Hulu. For more on Guide Dogs of America, visit guidedogsofamerica.org Thank you for reading. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription. Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com and followed at @AmyKup on Twitter/X, @amykup.bsky.social on Bluesky and @kupamy on Instagram and Threads.