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It was the year 2000, and a man named Jerry Halpin was a contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Stumped by the $32,000 question, Halpin decided to “Phone a Friend”: pal Rosie O’Donnell.

O’Donnell – during a Tuesday, October 14, appearance on Sam Pang Tonight – reflected on how that moment came to be.

“Because of her divorce from Prince Charles, what title was taken from Britain’s Diana?” host Regis Philbin asked Halpin.

“I’m gonna call Rosie,” the contestant responded, explaining: “She’s a talk show host in New York.”

“Oh no, Regis,” O’Donnell, 63, said as she answered the call. Taking a stab at the answer — “Her Royal Highness” — she promised to pay Halpin the $32,000 even if she got the question wrong out of “guilt.”

However, she was right, and Halpin went on to the next question.

Twenty-five years later, O’Donnell revealed to Pang, “I didn’t even know that guy.”

“I didn’t. I talked on my show about how much I loved it, and how I want to be a Phone a Friend,” she recalled. “And then this guy wrote me and said, ‘I’m on two days from now, are you free?’”

The Rosie O’Donnell Show alum was so nervous when the call came in that she recalled having “diarrhea cramps.”

“Never met him in my life,” she laughed.

Halpin ended up missing the $64,000 question, but took home $32,000.

More than two decades later, O’Donnell finally got her own chance in the Hot Seat. Though she walked away at the million-dollar question, she took home $500,000 for her charity, For All Kids Foundation.