Joe Rogan's estranged half-sister disputes his story of escaping to San Francisco from 'psychotic' father
AUSTIN, TEXAS: Joe Rogan has spoken to a lot of wild characters over the years—conspiracy theorists, fringe scientists, controversial politicians—but none seem to haunt him quite like his own father.
In one of his rawer podcast moments, the 57-year-old 'The Joe Rogan Experience' host dropped a bombshell about his childhood. "My dad would have turned me into a f***ing psychopath," he said. "He was crazy, he was a psychotic person... someone who can't keep it together. I would watch him beat guys up at a bar. He was a karate guy."
According to Joe, his father, Joseph Rogan Sr, was a violent, out-of-control New Jersey cop who spiraled out of his life before he even hit first grade. But now, his estranged half-sister is challenging the story.
"Ever since Joe's receipt of the attorneys' letter, he has no longer spoken about his claims of abuse," Rosa Rogan Lunelli, 46, told the Daily Mail. "My family adamantly denies those claims. There has been no contact on Joe's part with wanting to meet our father nor us."
Rosa, who’s never met her famous half-brother, insists the family deserves better than being smeared by someone who walked away decades ago. And while Joe hasn’t publicly revisited the "psychotic dad" saga since his father’s legal team sent him a defamation warning in 2022, the shadow of that narrative still looms large.
A Donald Trump twist in the Rogan family feud
What really stings for Rosa Rogan Lunelli is that she was actually proud of Joe Rogan, at least for a moment.
Last October, the famed podcaster hosted a three-hour sit-down with President Donald Trump on his podcast, a conversation that made waves and fueled MAGA momentum in the run-up to the 2024 election.
"It was absolutely an influential moment of the campaign when Joe interviewed Donald Trump before the election," Rosa told the Daily Mail. "Our family fully supports President Trump and his agenda, and what made it so influential is it was something that was never done before."
"Joe has the ability to shape people's thoughts, feelings, and attitudes through his podcast, so bringing President Trump on was huge. Our family was happy the podcast was so successful for the Trump campaign," she added.
But despite that moment of pride, Rosa’s bottom line hasn’t changed. Her half-brother built a mythology around their father—and it’s one the family refuses to accept.
Joe Rogan on his childhood and move to San Francisco
Joe Rogan was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1967 to Joseph Rogan Sr and Susan Lembo. The couple divorced when Joe was just five years old, and by the time he was seven, he had moved across the country to San Francisco, California, with his mother.
His father, meanwhile, stayed behind, remarried, and had two daughters, Rosa and Bridget. From that point on, father and son never spoke again.
Joe has painted that break as the beginning of a strange, wild chapter in his life. On his podcast, he’s described moving into a hippie wonderland in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury, the neighborhood famous for being ground zero of the 1960s counterculture.
"All of a sudden, I'm living with this hippie guy in San Francisco around a bunch of gay people. I went from living around these Italian, New Jersey psychopaths to San Francisco, peace and love," he said.
The comedian also talked about how his mother got close to their new neighbors. "[They] were a gay couple who [his] mom would get naked with and play the bongos and smoke pot," he once recalled.
His mother eventually remarried a "hippie" computer programmer, whom Joe has never named.
Joe Rogan's rise to UFC stardom
After a few years in California, Joe Rogan moved to Newton, Massachusetts, as a teenager. It wasn’t an easy transition as he struggled to fit in and feared becoming what he called a "loser."
"I was really terrified about being a loser. That was my No 1 fear in life," Joe said in a 2014 interview. "I was scared of the future. Martial arts gave me not just confidence but also a different perspective of myself and what I was capable of. I knew that I could do something I was terrified of."
"I do not think I would have ever become who I am if I didn't learn martial arts at a very early age. I think the best decision I ever made in my entire life was to immerse myself in something so incredibly difficult," he added.
That decision would change everything. By his early 30s, Joe had carved out a niche for himself as a stand-up comic, a sitcom actor, and the host of NBC’s 'Fear Factor'. But it was his passion for martial arts that landed him his big break.
In 2002, UFC boss Dana White tapped Joe to commentate for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, which was still finding its feet at the time. He was 35 and already juggling gigs—but this one stuck.
And the rest is history.
