Rabbi Shmuley Boteach interviewed his longtime friend Roseanne Barr just one day after her hit ABC show was canceled, and now he’s finally shared the emotional conversation on his podcast.
The decision to cancel Season 2 of the “Roseanne” reboot last month came after the 65-year-old star posted a racially charged message on Twitter about President Obama’s former advisor Valerie Jarrett that referenced "Planet of the Apes."
Barr broke down in tears throughout the interview, telling Rabbi Shmuley she is not a racist.
The star said, “I didn’t mean what they think I meant. And that’s what’s so painful. But I have to face that it hurt people. When you hurt people, even unwillingly, there’s no excuse. I don’t want to run off and blather on with excuses. But I apologize to anyone who thought, or felt offended and who thought that I meant something that I, in fact, did not mean. It was my own ignorance, and there’s no excuse for that ignorance.”
She later insisted, “I’m a lot of things, a loudmouth and all that stuff. But I’m not stupid, for God’s sake. I never would have wittingly called any black person, [I would never had said] they are a monkey. I just wouldn’t do that. I didn’t do that. And people think that I did that and it just kills me. [Sobbing] 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.”
Barr also addressed the claim that she had taken Ambien before sending the tweet. She told Shmuley, “There’s no excuse. I don’t excuse it. It’s an explanation. I was impaired, you know.”
She went on to say she “horribly regrets” what she did. “I lost everything, and I regretted it before I lost everything,” Barr said. “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. 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 broke into tears as she spoke.
ABC has since moved on without Barr with plans for a spin-off show with a working title of “The Conners." The network confirmed, “Roseanne Barr will have no financial or creative involvement in the new series.”
Barr has continued to post and retweet controversial views on Twitter.
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