How Roseanne Barr Really Felt About Her Character Being Killed Off The Conners

In a new interview, Roseanne Barr shared her response to finding out her eponymous sitcom character had been killed off on The Conners. Find out how she says the event impacted her.

By Daniel Trainor Feb 09, 2023 10:26 PMTags
Watch: Roseanne Barr REACTS to Her Character's Fate on The Conners

Roseanne Barr is getting candid about her eponymous character's fate.

The comedian didn't hold back in sharing her response to her Roseanne character being killed off in the sitcom's 2018 spinoff The Conners.

"When they killed my character off, that was a message to me, knowing that I'm mentally ill or have mental health issues, that they did want me to commit suicide," Barr told the Los Angeles Times in an interview published Feb. 9. "They killed my character, and my character. And all of that was to say thank you for bringing 28 million viewers, which they never had before and will never see again. Because they can kiss my ass."

The 70-year-old was fired from the Roseanne revival—which re-branded as The Conners in the aftermath of Barr's departure—after she posted a racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett, a former advisor to Barack Obama. In the series premiere of The Conners in 2018, it was revealed that the character Roseanne had died of an opioid overdose.

As for her former cast mates—including John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf and Sara Gilbert—Barr has struggled to reckon with how they handled her firing.

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"I can't know what they think or feel," she stated. "I don't know why they did what they did. I'm not like them. I realized that. I can't believe what they did, with all the pain that I went through to bring the show back. And it didn't faze them to murder my character, either."

Barr originated the role of Roseanne Conner in October 1988 on Roseanne. The ABC sitcom ran for nine seasons until 1997 before being revived for a 10th season in 2018. The Conners, meanwhile, is currently in the midst of its fifth season on the network.

Still, Barr contends she isn't holding grudges against her former onscreen family.

"I forgive everybody," she said. "I started thinking that God took me out of there to save me. And once I started thinking that way, I was, like, a lot better off."

Julie Jacobson/AP/Shutterstock

The Conners airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on ABC.

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