Roseanne Barr has denied she is racist in her first TV interview since being fired after sending a controversial tweet.
The disgraced star was sacked from ABC’s sitcom Roseanne in May after she likened former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett to a cross between the Muslim Brotherhood and a “Planet of the Apes” actor.
But Barr has refused to say that her comments were racist.
Speaking to Sean Hannity on Fox News, Barr said that her tweet was a political statement rather than a racial one.
.@therealroseanne's message to Valerie Jarrett: "I'm sorry that you feel harmed and hurt. I never meant that and for that I apologize." #Hannity https://t.co/58BA7ZwIX7 pic.twitter.com/2r1HM4TBGH
— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 27, 2018
“I was so sad that people thought it was racist, she said.
At one point during the interview Barr turned to face the camera directly to apologise to Ms Jarett.
“If [Ms Jarret] is watching, I’m so sorry you thought I was racist, and that you thought my tweet was racist.
“I’m sorry that you feel harmed and hurt. I never meant that and I apologise for saying anything negative about an entire race of people.”
She added: “I am a creative genius, and this is not a good feeling for an artist to be treated this way, and it’s not a good feeling for a citizen, either.”
The comedian said she was “shocked” that “everybody started saying I was racist, which is like the worst thing you can call a Jewish person, especially one like me that worked with Holocaust survivors”.
On Wednesday (July 25) Barr tweeted that she was “disgusted” about the support for fired Guardians of the Galaxy director, James Gunn.
“I’m disgusted to read all of the support for James Gunn’s pedophile jokes-as the same people supported blacklisting me for a joke they didn’t even understand.”
I’m disgusted to read all of the support for James Gunn’s pedophile jokes-as the same people supported blacklisting me for a joke they didn’t even understand.
— Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) July 24, 2018
Gunn allegedly wrote tweets dating from 2008 and 2009 allegedly in which he jokes about rape and paedophilia.