Roseanne Barr Says She Tried Contacting Valerie Jarrett to Apologize

Roseanne Barr said that she has tried to contact Valerie Jarrett and apologize, the Roseanne star said in her first interview since her racist tweets about the Obama administration adviser.

Barr’s sitcom reboot was cancelled after she compared Jarrett to an ape, and implied with no proof that she was involved in the terrorist organization the Muslim Brotherhood. It was the last straw for ABC, after Barr had posted far-right conspiracy theories countless times before.

Within a week of the show cancellation, Barr gave an interview with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach for the Jerusalem Post. The interview was not released immediately, as Barr was tearful and emotional while talking about her beloved show. On Sunday, it was finally released online, and Barr revealed her attempts to apologize to Jarrett personally.

“I went to her twitter page and I said ‘Please forgive me. I have done something horrible and I apologize to you, and I ask for your forgiveness,’” Barr said. “And you know, I tried to get her phone number because even though I don’t agree with her, even when we really disagree with someone because they’re hurting us and our families — we still have to treat them with human dignity. And that’s what I wanted to apologize to her for. Because you know, even though I didn’t have that in my head it came out that way.”

Barr’s tweet was posted in response to a story which suggested that Jarrett had intentionally covered up massive crimes for the Obama administration. It is one of the many conspiracy theories she subscribes to — including birtherism, QAnon, PizzaGate and more.

Barr also claimed that she did not know that Jarrett was a woman of color, therefore not realizing the racist implications of her post. However, the “Muslim Brotherhood” aspect of her post suggested that she at least knew that Jarrett was Iranian-American, confusing her point a bit.

“Valerie Jarrett, I don’t agree with her politics and I thought she was white, I did not know she was a black woman. When ABC called me and said what is the reason for your egregious racism, I said, ‘Oh my God, it is a form of racism.’ I guess I didn’t know she was black, and I’ll cop to it, but I thought she was white,” Barr said.

Shortly after the cancellation, she also blamed the tweets on her use of Ambien, though even the drug company refuted this excuse.

This week, Barr officially gave ABC permission to create a spinoff of Roseanne titled The Conners. It will feature all of the original cast except for Barr herself, and she will have no hand in the show creatively or financially. It is expected to air starting this fall.