All Of Roseanne Barr's Controversies Explained
One of America's favorite families, the Conners of the sitcom "Roseanne" (1988-97), made their return to television in March of 2018 after a 10-year hiatus. "The Conners" is still running three years later, reuniting most of the original cast, but with one notable exception: the name that started it all (via Today). Roseanne Barr, star of the original "Roseanne" and its reboot, was dropped just two months after the new version's premiere, following a now-deleted racist tweet from Barr about a former senior advisor to President Barack Obama.
The cast and production team of what is now "The Conners" took a stance against Barr's behavior. Notably, actress Sara Gilbert, who played Barr's daughter Darlene, tweeted, "Roseanne's recent comments about Valerie Jarrett, and so much more, are abhorrent and do not reflect the beliefs of our cast and crew or anyone associated with the show. I am disappointed in her actions to say the least." Barr's sharp turn to the right may not have been entirely unexpected by audiences, however, as the actress has been no stranger to outrageous controversy throughout her career.
Her racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett
The controversy that cancelled ABC's "Roseanne" reboot and had Roseanne Barr herself removed from the show concerned a now-deleted tweet that Barr posted on her personal twitter. The tweet read, "muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj", with "vj" referring to former senior aid to the Obama administration, Valerie Jarrett (above) (via CNBC). When met with a litany of criticism, Barr recanted, tweeting the explanation, "I apologize to Valerie Jarrett and to all Americans. I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks. I should have known better. Forgive me — my joke was in bad taste."
Barr's further defense of the tweet was convoluted, and seemingly did more harm than good. The actress made strange remarks regarding Jarrett's race, first claiming that she thought Jarrett was white, then that she thought Jarrett "was [S]audi" (via CBS). Barr then tried to blame the tweet on the fact that she had taken the insomnia medication Ambien prior to posting it.
When she dressed up as Hitler
In 2009, Roseanne Barr faced a huge amount of backlash for a photoshoot she did for Heeb magazine, a publication catering mainly to young Jewish readers (via CNN). In the photos, Barr, who is Jewish herself, is dressed as Adolf Hitler, in a full uniform, fake mustache and red armband. Barr is posing near an oven in the photos, and is pictured taking out a tray of people-shaped burnt cookies. The photos understandably sparked outrage, though Barr claimed she was not trying to mock the Holocaust or Jewish people
In a confusing defense of the photos, Barr said in a 2011 appearance on "The Green Room," "There's another, deeper layer to it. Moving off this Holocaust, there's been about 50 of them since then. That's what I'm kind of trying to say is ... it's so f***ing every day now, Holocaust, it's like baking cookies."
When she went public with incest claims
Roseanne Barr's controversies are not all as recent as the mid-aughts, and in fact the actress has been at the center of backlash as early as the 1990s, at the height of her "Roseanne" sitcom popularity. In 1991, Barr gave a shocking interview with People (it was the issue's cover story) in which she stated that she had been a victim of incest and abuse throughout her childhood. She stated that she had survived sexual abuse from her father, and psychological and physical abuse from her mother. Both of Barr's parents denied these allegations, as did one of Barr's sisters, Geraldine.
In a 2011 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Barr seemingly recanted these statements, claiming that they were the "biggest mistake" she'd "ever made" (via CNN). Barr explained to Winfrey, "I think what happened was that — well, I know what happened was that I was in a very unhappy relationship. I was prescribed numerous psychiatric drugs. Incredible mixtures of psychiatric drugs to deal with the fact that I had, and still in some ways, have and always will have some mental illness. And the drugs and the combination of drugs that I was given, which were some strong, strong drugs, I totally lost touch with reality in a big, big way."