Roseanne says it was ‘penance’ she received no money when her show was canceled over racist tweets

Roseanne Barr has spoken of her firing, the cancelling of her eponymous show and how she feared the racist tweets which led to it would make her African American on-screen granddaughter ‘think badly of Jewish people’.

The comedian spoke to Stand Up NY’s Rabbi Shmuley Boteach Podcast as part of an interview to be aired on Monday.

As part of it, she told how she thought her leaving the show without a payout was ‘penance’ for remarks she made about Valerie Jarrett in May. Barr said on Twitter that Jarrett looked like ‘Muslim brotherhood and planet of the apes had a baby’.

The comment was universally condemned and led to the cancellation of her revived ABC show.

‘I didn’t ask to be paid off, I asked for nothing. I just step away for that because that is penance. I put a lot of thought into it,’ she said.

Rosanne Barr said it was ‘penance’ that her show was canceled without her receiving a payout in an interview that will air in full on Monday. She is pictured at her Utah home in June days after the scandal which stemmed from her racist tweets about former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett 

She also spoke of eight-year-old Jayden Rey, her on-screen granddaughter who si black.

‘I was very upset about hurting things that I care about and hurting people that I care about. Specifically, the little girl who played by granddaughter.

‘She is African American and she loved me and I loved her.

‘I did not want her, I did not want her to not have a job because she’s great. I did not want her to think badly of Jewish people and me specifically,’ she said.

The 65-year-old previously said she was most ashamed of the fact that what she said about Jarrett made Rey think she did not love her because she was black.

Elsewhere in the interview she spoke about a group of Native American children who she has become godmother to after watching their grandmother struggle to care for them.

Barr, 65, said she feared her comments would make eight-year-old Jayden Rey, her on-screen granddaughter, think 'badly of Jewish people'. They are pictured on the show 

Barr, 65, said she feared her comments would make eight-year-old Jayden Rey, her on-screen granddaughter, think ‘badly of Jewish people’. They are pictured on the show 

In May, Barr sparked universal outrage with this tweet about Jarrett 

In May, Barr sparked universal outrage with this tweet about Jarrett 

Barr, who made $250,000 per episode of the show before it was canceled, said she felt compelled to step in and help the family after watching them struggle.

‘It came to my attention that there was this woman who was a little younger than me on Rosebud Reservations and she was raising 11 of her own grandchildren in a one room, not a good, I don’t know, I don’t want to be insulting but it was kind of like not kept, not the best place to live with 11 children in one room with one bathroom.

‘I just, sometimes when you become aware of how real people in America are living, and you have privilege, you have to do something to raise them,’ she said, without explaining what exactly she has done to help them.  

In previous interviews with the rabbi, she broke down and said she had made herself a ‘hate magnet’. 

Barr has remained silent when asked about the ABC’s recent decision to launch a spinoff show without Roseanne’s main character.

During her tearful interview with the Rabbi, Barr said of her tweet: ‘It’s really hard to say this but, I didn’t mean what they think I meant’.

‘That’s what’s so painful, but I have to face that it hurt people. When you hurt people, even unwillingly, there’s no excuse. I don’t want to run off and blather on with excuses. 

‘But I apologize to anyone who thought, or felt offended and who thought that I meant something that I, in fact, did not mean. It was my own ignorance, and there’s no excuse for that ignorance.’  

Barr later deleted and apologized for the tweet, saying she was impaired by the sleep drug Ambien at the time she was posting.

Speaking through tears for much of the interview, Barr told the Rabbi that she definitely felt remorse for the saga. 

Barr said she was willing to ‘accept whatever consequences this brings’ because she knows she’s ‘done wrong.’ 

She also lamented that some people didn’t accept her explanation blaming Ambien for the tweets.

‘That’s no excuse, but that is what was real,’ she said.

‘I horribly regret it. Are you kidding? I lost everything, and I regretted it before I lost everything.

‘And I said to God, ‘I am willing to accept whatever consequences this brings because I know I’ve done wrong. I’m going to accept what the consequences are,’ and I do, and I have. But they don’t ever stop. They don’t accept my apology, or explanation.

‘I’ve made myself a hate magnet. And as a Jew, it’s just horrible. It’s horrible.’

In the interview, Barr reiterated her earlier claims that she thought Jarrett was white said she ‘never would have wittingly called any black person a monkey’.

‘I have black children in my family. I can’t, I can’t let ’em say these things about that, after thirty years of my putting my family and my health and my livelihood at risk to stand up for people,’ Barr told Boteach.

‘I’m a lot of things, a loud mouth and all that stuff. But I’m not stupid for God’s sake. I never would have wittingly called any black person, [I would never had said] they are a monkey. I just wouldn’t do that. I didn’t do that.

‘People think that I did that and it just kills me. I didn’t do that. And if they do think that, I’m just so sorry that I was so unclear and stupid. I’m very sorry. But I don’t think that and I would never do that. I have loved ones who are African-American, and I just can’t stand it. I’ve made a huge error and I told ABC when they called me.’

The ABC announced on Thursday it would launch a spinoff of the ‘Roseanne’ series without its embattled star.

The network will air a Conner family sitcom minus Barr this fall.

ABC ordered 10 episodes of the spinoff after Barr relinquished any creative or financial participation in it, which the network had said was a condition of such a series. 

In a statement issued by the show’s producer, Barr said she agreed to the settlement to save the jobs of 200 cast and crew members who were idled when ‘Roseanne’ was canceled last month. 

ABC said that the new series, with ‘The Conners’ as its working title, will star John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, Sara Gilbert, Lecy Goranson and Michael Fishman.

How Barr’s character, the family matriarch, will be erased from their lives was left unexplained for now by ABC.

‘After a sudden turn of events, the Conners are forced to face the daily struggles of life in Lanford in a way they never have before,’ the network said in its announcement, referring to the fictional Illinois town where the family lives.

The spinoff will continue to portray contemporary issues that are as relevant today as they were 30 years ago,’ ABC said, a nod to the unusual portrayal of a blue-collar family on TV.



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