Roseanne Barr had breakdown

10 March 2019

Roseanne Barr had a "complete nervous breakdown" following her Twitter scandal.

Roseanne Barr

The 66-year-old actress received a huge backlash which resulted in her sitcom 'Roseanne' being cancelled by ABC after she was accused of racism over a tweet comparing Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to former US President Barack Obama, to an ape, and she's admitted it was a difficult time for her.

She said: "I had a complete nervous breakdown.

"[I couldn't get out of bed or speak]. I couldn't think either.

"They gave me 48 hours to sign away the rights to my show or I'd be sued, because I ruined the season. They cancelled the show before one sponsor pulled out, which is unheard of. They wanted to get rid of me."

The star has previously blamed having taken sleeping medication Ambien for her controversial tweet and she's no longer used the medication since the scandal.

She said: "I was in an inebriated condition.

"I'd gone to bed at 11pm, sent the tweet at 2am. I was on Ambien [a sleeping pill]. It was a very stupid thing. I was dreaming and I woke up and thought this is a really great thing that I'll tweet. I was appalled I was not allowed to explain it...

"I wished I hadn't done it and I don't take Ambien no more. It made me think in an impaired way and I'd also had a couple of beers."

Roseanne went to claim former First Lady Michelle Obama was responsible for her firing after she called ABC chiefs.

She told the Sunday Times magazine: "She said, 'This tweet is unforgivable.' That's what I was told and I tend to believe it because the woman who fired me is now working with the Obamas at Netflix."

Following the cancellation of 'Roseanne', ABC have established spin-off show 'The Conners', which features all her former castmates in their previous roles following the death of her character, and the actress isn't happy with the programme or the network.

She said: "They think because they killed me it's OK to use me, use the memory of me. Still mention me. It's still my show, but they stole it. They are going to do it to other comics. I'm just the first.

"[ABC told me] if I do one more thing they don't like, they'll remove my reruns for ever. And I said, 'Could you define what the one more thing is?' and they won't.

"It's a total Stalinist censorship. I'm known for free speech and also bringing free speech into a family context with the conversations I had on my show. They don't want none of that no more. They only want pliable servants. I'm not that. I'm not a slave."