Roseanne Barr in a recent interview said that she regrets writing the tweet that resulted in unrelenting backlash and the cancellation of her show, “Roseanne.”
Heard crying throughout the interview, Barr told her friend Rabbi Shmuley Boteach on his podcast that she “didn’t mean what they think I meant” when she tweeted that former President Obama official Valerie Jarrett, who is part black, is a combination of the “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes.”
She added that she "thought [Jarrett] was white" and that she didn't mean to be racist but that it was "a form of racism, I guess, that I didn’t know she was black.”
Barr went on to apologize for being “so unclear and stupid.”
"I have black children in my family," she said crying. ”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 ... say they are a monkey."
Barr continued, "I just wouldn’t do that. I didn’t do that. And 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.”
Barr said that she was on Ambien at the time, but that it was “no excuse” for her actions.
“I made myself a hate magnet and as a Jew, it’s just horrible. It’s horrible,” she said.
ABC fired Barr and cancelled the reboot of her show, “Roseanne,” on May 29 after the actress posted a series of tweets including the following:
"Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj."
That tweet set off a firestorm of criticism against the actress accusing her of being racist and bigoted.
Barr insisted that she wrote the tweet about Jarrett because she doesn't agree "with her politics," not because she has an issue with her race.
Barr told Boteach that she “horribly” regrets what she did and that she “regretted it before I lost everything.”
She said that she’s since accepted the consequences.
"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," said Barr.
For more, check out the GMA post below.