Roseanne Barr says that the tweet she was fired over was not evidence of racism in a new interview.
In her first interview following the cancellation of her television show “Roseanne,” Barr said that she was sad that people believed her tweet about Valerie Jarrett was racist.
Barr soon apologized to Jarrett for “making a bad joke about her politics and her looks.” She said she didn’t know that Jarrett was black. “I’m sorry you feel harmed and hurt because I never meant that,” she said, addressing Jarrett directly.
The backlash over the tweet prompted ABC to cancel Roseanne’s show, despite the program consistently drawing in a huge number of viewers.
“Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show,” said ABC Entertainment President Channing Dungey in a statement.
Barr said in the interview on Thursday that she made a mistake.
“I was so sad, and I’m so sad that anyone thinks that of me,” Barr told Hannity. “I never meant to hurt anybody, or say anything negative about an entire race of people.”
Barr said she could have legally fought being fired, claiming her contract protected her from mistakes she would make, but chose not to. She also signed off on her colleagues and staff forming a new program in the “Roseanne” universe, a spinoff with many of the same characters called “The Conners.”
Jarrett told Reuters that she didn’t intend to watch the Barr interview.
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