Roseanne Barr Says She ‘Lost Everything’ in First Interview Since Scandal

The interview Roseanne Barr conducted just days after her racist tweet scandal began has finally been released.

Barr called into Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s podcast on May 31 and engaged in an apologetic discussion about her tweet branding Valerie Jarrett, a former Barack Obama aide, as the offspring of the Muslim Bortherhood and Planet of the Apes.

The podcast was originally shelved by Boteach, but, as The Blast points out, he has now released the full interview on The Jerusalem Post.

Most of the podcast centers around Barr attempting to show her regret for her actions and engage in discussions of her Jewish faith. She claims, “I have black children in my family” and would not “wittingly call any black person and say they are a monkey.”

“I’m a lot of things, a loud mouth and all that stuff. But I’m not stupid for God’s sake,” Barr said. “I never would have wittingly call any black person and say 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. 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…I have loved ones who are African American, and I just can’t stand it.”

She adds, “I am so sorry that I was so unclear and stupid. I’m very sorry but I don’t think that, I never would do that.”

Barr later adds she “thought (Jarrett) was white” and was initially not aware as to why ABC and onlookers her calling her racist.

“Valerie Jarrett, I don’t agree with her politics and I thought she was white, I did not know she was a black woman,” Barr said. “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.’”

The Roseanne actress also addressed the chorus of Twitter users defending her and her statements in light of the cancellation of her sitcom. As she had previously stated on the platform, she said she does not want to be defended and accepts blame.

“I ask people if you look at my tweet don’t defend me,” Barr said. “I’ve done something egregious and I don’t want to be defended. I don’t want to get anymore racism going from what I did, I don’t want that. I don’t want to be defended.”

Then then goes on to say she “lost everything,” referring to her scarred reputation and the cancellation of Roseanne, which is now being replaced with a spinoff series about her character’s family without her.

“I don’t excuse it. I horribly regret it,” Barr said. “I lost everything, and I regretted it before I lost everything. 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.”

Another excerpt sees Barr explain that she is remorseful about the entire situation. She implies that she will “take an action” to “correct her sin.”

“The point is to feel remorse in your heart because that’s what unplugs your heart,” Barr said. “You have to feel remorse, not just repentance. That’s just a step towards feeling remorse. And when you feel remorse you have to follow it with recompense. You have to take an action in the world, whether it’s through money or other things, to correct your sin.

She continued, “After your heart is unfrozen and after it stops being broken from the pain you caused others, you stop being a robot and you gotta’ come back to God. So it’s remorse, and I definitely feel remorse.”

Photo Credit: Getty Images / Vera Anderson