The parents of 40-year-old Michelle Rounds have spoken out about the shock they felt when they learned their daughter is dating Rosie O’Donnell.

Michelle’s father, Roger Rounds said, “It totally hit us out of left field... We only found about Michelle liking girls when all this came out about them a few weeks ago. It's been hard to take."

He said, “This has been a painful experience for me and my wife ... We'd always held out hope that Michelle would eventually find a nice guy to marry, settle down and have kids. And now this - it's pretty shocking stuff for us to digest."

Talk show host O’Donnell met Michelle at a coffee shop earlier this year. In an interview with ABC’s 'Nightline' she said “I walked into a Starbucks in the summer and she was holding a little puppy.”

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The 49-year-old international celebrity explained that she struck up a conversation with Michelle about dogs but had no intention of picking her up.

"I thought she was a 28-year-old heterosexual girl because that's what she looked like to me," O’Donnell told 'Nightline.'

However, the pair have now been dating for several months and O’Donnell even told Howard Stern that they were talking about marriage.

Michele’s father has other ideas. He said: “I've never met the woman - and I have no real desire to at this point." He admitted to the National Enquirer that his wife had had the pleasure.