Roseanne Barr Addresses Ambien Use in Dr. Oz Appearance

In an excerpt from an upcoming interview with Dr. Oz, Roseanne Barr speaks extensively about Ambien, the drug she partially blamed for her racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett that resulted in her firing from ABC and the cancellation of her sitcom, Roseanne.

“It is a weird drug,” she said in the teaser clip from the Sept. 18 episode of The Dr. Oz Show, adding that she had felt side effects from the sleeping medication in the past.

“Well, I’ve done some weird things on Ambien, and I think a lot of people have, too. I’ve heard from thousands of people about it,” she continued. “One guy got up and cooked a turkey and ate it — so that was like four hours if you think about it — and didn’t remember it in the morning. And all the time that happens to me. When I go up in the kitchen and there’s a whole box of Triscuits laid out and eggs cracked on the wall, cheese everywhere.”

Dr. Oz didn’t seem to be buying Barr’s explanation. “I actually looked up Ambien, and tweeting is not a side effect,” he said at the end of the clip.

“No,” she replied.

After Barr implied in May that the prescription sleeping medication was to blame for her tweet that compared Jarrett to an ape, Sanofi, the drugmaker that produces Ambien, clapped back at Barr’s allegation.

The company tweeted at the time, “People of all races, religions and nationalities work at Sanofi every day to improve the lives of people around the world. While all pharmaceutical treatments have side effects, racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication.”

Barr’s initial tweet about Ambien was part of an apology for her racist tweet. She discouraged fans from defending her for sending the tweet, writing, “Guys I did something unforgivable so do not defend me. It was 2 in the morning and I was ambien tweeting-it was memorial day too-i went 2 far & do not want it defended-it was egregious Indefensible [sic]. I made a mistake I wish I hadn’t but…don’t defend it please.”

In the weeks that followed the cancellation of Roseanne, which was the top-rated comedy series at ABC at the time, the network ordered a full season of The Conners, a spinoff with every major character returning except for Barr’s titular Roseanne.

“I’m not going to curse it or bless it,” Barr said of the spinoff show on the Rabbi Shmuley Boteach Podcast. “I’m staying neutral. That’s what I do. I’m staying neutral. I’m staying away from it. Not wishing bad on anyone, and I don’t wish good for my enemies. I don’t. I can’t. I just stay neutral. That’s what I gotta do. I have some mental health issues of depression and stuff. I got to stay in the middle or I’ll go dark, and I don’t want to go dark again. I’ve done it. After all, I was married to Tom Arnold.”