Roseanne Barr has suggested that her sitcom was cancelled by ABC not because of the fall-out from her racism scandal, but because of her staunch support for US President Donald Trump.
Back in May, Roseanne faced a massive backlash over a tweet in which she compared former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett to a cross between the “Muslim brotherhood” and an “ape”.
The controversy led ABC to pull the recently-rebooted sitcom ‘Roseanne’ from the air, though she has now claimed this was due to her political beliefs rather than her questionable tweets.
Roseanne made the suggestion in a new video statement, which she uploaded onto her YouTube channel so that, in her words, she can “speak for herself” without having to worry about “the filter of the biased media”.
She continued: “When ABC called and asked me to explain my ‘egregious and unforgivable tweet,’ I told them I thought Valerie Jarrett was white. And I also said, ‘I am willing to go on ‘The View’, ‘Jimmy Kimmel’, or whatever other show you want me to go on and explain that to my audience’.
“Now, instead what happened was, about 40 minutes after that, my show was cancelled before even one advertiser pulled out and I was labelled a racist.
“Why, you ask? Well, the answer is simple. It’s because I voted for Donald Trump and that is not allowed in Hollywood.”
This is the second video upload on the matter Roseanne has made in just a few days, previously sharing an alarming video in which she flew off the handle while discussing Valerie Jarrett, yelling: “I thought the bitch was white!”
While the backlash from her tweet led ABC to pull the plug on the recent ‘Roseanne’ reboot, the show’s lead actress claimed earlier this month that she’d had plenty of TV offers in the weeks that followed.
Meanwhile, a spin-off based on the rest of the cast, with no involvement from Roseanne, is now confirmed to be in the works.
Tentatively titled ‘The Connors’, Sara Gilbert, John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf are all tipped to be taking part in the new 10-episode series show.
She said at the time: “I regret the circumstances that have caused me to be removed from ‘Roseanne’.
“I agreed to the settlement in order that 200 jobs of beloved cast and crew could be saved, and I wish the best for everyone involved.”