Comic Roseanne Barr claims ABC Television was trying to get her to die by suicide when they axed her from her network sitcom in 2018 after she made racist comments on Twitter.
“When they killed my character off, that was a message to me, knowing that I’m mentally ill or have mental health issues, that they did want me to commit suicide. They killed my character, and my character. And all of that was to say thank you for bringing 28 million viewers, which they never had before and will never see again. Because they can kiss my ass.”
Barr called what she went through “a witch-burning” and said “they just hated me so badly ... because I have talent, because I have an opinion.”
She also said no one in Hollywood has paid as steep a price as she did.
“I’m the only person who’s lost everything, whose life’s work was stolen, stolen by people who I thought loved me,” she told the newspaper. “And there was silence. There was no one in Hollywood really defending me publicly, except for Mo’Nique, who is a brave, close, dear friend.”
“Roseanne,” one of the most successful shows in the late 1980s and 1990s, was revived by ABC in 2018. Barr was fired and the show canceled after her racist tweet aimed at Valerie Jarrett, a former aide to President Barack Obama.
Barr later blamed the sleep drug Ambien for the tweet, and insisted she thought Jarrett was white.
The show was retooled as “The Conners” to focus on the rest of the family, with Barr’s character written out as having died of an opioid overdose.
“The Conners” remains on the air, but Barr told the Los Angeles Times she hasn’t watched it and said those who continued with the spinoff “shit on my contribution to television and the show itself.”
Barr has a comedy special called “Roseanne Barr: Cancel This!” set to debut next week on Fox Nation, which she told the Times “is the most offensive in my stand-up that I’ve ever had the balls to be.”
If you or someone you know needs help, dial 988 or call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. You can also get support via text by visiting suicidepreventionlifeline.org/chat. Outside of the U.S., please visit the International Association for Suicide Prevention for a database of resources.