Roseanne Barr Shockingly Reveals Real Reason She Posted Tweet That Got Her Fired by ABC [WATCH]

Seven years after the tweet that led to her high-profile firing from ABC, Roseanne Barr is finally speaking out about the real reason behind the post that rocked her career.

In a candid new interview with Variety, the 72-year-old comedian claims her actions were not impulsive or accidental—but divinely inspired.

“God Told Me To Do It”

“The way I feel about it is that God told me to do what I did, and it was a nuclear bomb,” Barr revealed.

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“The day of my tweet, over 2 million Americans Googled Valerie Jarrett and the Iran deal. And that was my intent. So, whatever.”

In 2018, Barr shared a tweet that included a photo comparing Valerie Jarrett—former senior advisor to President Barack Obama—to Helena Bonham Carter in her role as Ari from Planet of the Apes. The caption read: “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.”

I mean, Valerie Jarrett does look like Helena Bonham Carter’s “Ari” pic.twitter.com/PKgpsZf3S0

— El Tigre ⚓️ (@EltigreEsq) May 30, 2018

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The backlash was swift and unforgiving. Critics across the political and cultural spectrum condemned the post as racist, since Jarrett is of African-American descent.

ABC responded within hours, canceling its then-popular reboot of Roseanne, despite the show’s strong ratings.

ABC Pulls the Plug

Channing Dungey, then-president of ABC Entertainment, issued a strong statement calling the tweet “abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values.”

Disney CEO Bob Iger backed the decision, saying, “There was only one thing to do here, and that was the right thing.”

Barr, however, remains unapologetic—and maintains the tweet was misinterpreted.

This morning Roseanne Barr “joked” about Valerie Jarrett being a cross between Planet of the Apes and the Muslim Brotherhood. pic.twitter.com/3swvEx4B8H

— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) May 29, 2018

“I was already having nightmares about never going back to that show [Roseanne], and God woke me up,” she said.

“I had my laptop there in bed, as always, and I opened it, and there was [an X post with] a picture of Valerie Jarrett next to Helena Bonham Carter in full makeup as Ari in Planet of the Apes, and they looked like Xerox copies of each other, so I captioned it.”

Barr Defends Her Intentions

Barr has long maintained that the tweet was political, not racial. She insisted her reference was aimed at the Planet of the Apes film’s underlying message—not at Jarrett’s race.

“They were so racist that they thought my tweet said Black people look like monkeys when it was about Planet of the Apes, which is a movie about fascism,” she explained.

“Rod Serling himself said it’s about the Jews in Germany. It is not a movie about Black people, Bob.”

ABC’s cancellation of Roseanne led to a spin-off series, The Conners, which continued with the rest of the cast but killed off Barr’s character.

The show recently concluded after seven seasons.

“I felt very pissed off that they stole my rights and killed me,” Barr said. “It was so stupid and shortsighted, and I don’t know how they answer to their shareholders for canceling me before even one sponsor pulled out.”

Taking Aim at Cancel Culture

Barr has since placed the blame squarely on what she sees as a politically motivated takedown, fueled by cancel culture and her open support of Donald Trump.

“They were waiting for me to slip up,” she said of ABC executives.

“They spied, they monitored everything I did. They wanted to censor me from the very beginning…they hijacked that tweet and made out it said something that it didn’t. I’m not stupid. I would never refer to a black person as the product of an ape.”

Both Greg Gutfeld and Jeanine Pirro claim they also didn’t know that Valerie Jarrett is black while defending Roseanne Barr’s excuse over her racist “Planet of the Apes” tweet. pic.twitter.com/7kw7fl8faT

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) February 14, 2023

Though she issued an apology at the time, Barr now regrets doing so.

“The worst mistake you can do is apologize to the left. Then they are on a crusade against you,” she declared.

“Once you admit a mistake, they will keep on until you’re dead.”

While the controversy cost Barr her television comeback, it didn’t completely erase her from public view.

Over the years, she has maintained a loyal fanbase and has continued to speak out on political and cultural issues. Whether Hollywood will ever welcome her back remains uncertain.

Still, her latest revelations shed new light on the moment that changed her life—and offer a window into how she sees her place in an industry and a culture that, in her view, turned against her.

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