Roseanne tearfully addresses becoming ‘hate magnet’
NEW YORK — In an emotional interview, Roseanne Barr said she definitely feels remorse for the racist tweet that prompted ABC to cancel the revival of “Roseanne.”
Barr recorded a podcast interview with her longtime friend, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who yesterday published an edited transcript and recording of the conversation. In the interview, Barr claims she “never would have wittingly called any black person a monkey.”
Barr spoke through tears for much of the interview, her first since the cancellation of “Roseanne.” She also lamented that some people don’t accept her explanation blaming the sleep drug Ambien for a tweet that likened former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett to a person created by the Muslim Brotherhood and “Planet of the Apes.”
“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,” Barr said. “But they don’t ever stop. They don’t accept my apology, or explanation. And I’ve made myself a hate magnet. And as a Jew, it’s just horrible. It’s horrible.”
Barr said of her tweet that she “didn’t mean what they think I meant.”
ABC on Thursday announced it will this fall air a 10-episode Conner family sitcom without Barr in it. 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.
ABC swiftly axed “Roseanne” last month after Barr’s tweet.