Already have an account?
Get back to the

Roseanne Barr Has Mixed Emotions About ‘The Conners’: ‘It’s Going to Be Interesting’

Roseanne Barr mixed emotions the conners
Roseanne BarrINSTAR Images

When The Conners premieres on ABC October 16, one Conner will be conspicuously absent. After Roseanne Barr posted a racist tweet regarding former government official Valerie Jarrett in May, ABC canceled her Roseanne reboot and ushered in a spinoff titled The Conners the following month, excluding Barr from the cast. In a live taping of the “Rabbi Shmuley Podcast” on Thursday, July 26, the 65-year-old aired her feelings about the show continuing without her.

Related: Roseanne Barr’s Most Controversial Moments

“I have mixed emotions, and I go up and down with it,” she said. “Sometimes I’m good with it, sometimes I’m not. I’m human. I try to think positively and to afford even those who slander me — I try to treat them with human dignity, despite what they do to me. I’m sorry that it wasn’t important enough for them to call me and ask me what I meant. I think, ‘Man, they lost a good friend, but I didn’t.’”

Roseanne Barr mixed emotions the conners
Still from ‘Roseanne’ Getty Images

When Rabbi Shmuley asked the actress if she had “moved passed it all,” she replied that she had: “I’m over it, I have nothing but love for everyone. It hurt my soul when I was mad, but in the end, it came back to my love for humans and my love for God.”

And when asked if she would come back to the show, Barr commented on her physical condition: “I became very debilitated and physically unwell. I’m 65, but I’ve gone through some things, so I’m probably 80.”

The comedian then explained what she had envisioned for season 2: “I wanted the second season to be all about race, with DJ’s daughter. I wanted his wife to come home and talk about race and class, and I thought I’m really gonna be able to it, ‘cause it’s usually not allowed. I heard the president of ABC tell [reporters] that the second season wasn’t going to be political, it was going to be about the family. I thought, ‘F—k, I didn’t say that.’ We need to have more black writers in the room. I’ve always said that. Hollywood is so segregated, and it’s not their fault. [ABC] canceled it so fast. I think they all hated me cause I voted for Trump and I’m fat and stuff.”

Related: Celebrities’ Political Affiliations

Barr also expressed concerns about the authenticity of the show but said she’s not wishing it ill. “It’s going to be interesting seeing a bunch of privileged people who grew up in Hollywood try to write for the working class,” she mused. “I’m not a troll rubbing my fingers together wanting them to fail. I wanna be laughing.”

Related: Celebrities’ Biggest Social Media Fails

In a prior episode of the podcast, Barr revealed her remorse over her tweet, in which she compared the 61-year-old Jarett to an ape. “Of course I’m not a racist,” she said. “I’m an idiot. I might have done something that comes across as a bigoted and ignorant, and I know that that’s how it came across … I never would have wittingly called any black person and say they are a monkey. I just wouldn’t do that, and I didn’t do that, and that people think that I did that — it just kills me.”

In this article

Got a Tip form close button
Got a tip for US?
We're All Ears for Celebrity Buzz!