Throughout her decades-long career, Roseanne Barr has caused a lot of controversy. From her hit, eponymous TV show having early LGBTQ+ representation, to that very same series returning to ABC in 2018 but then being canceled after Barr tweeted a very controversial comment, and quickly rebounding into The Conners (the 2025 TV schedule recently played host to the end of its seven-season run) without its former lead. In the midst of all that, however, she’s been forging a relationship with the child she gave up for adoption in the early 1970s, and she’s now told the wild story about reconnecting with her daughter.
What Did Roseanne Barr Say About Reconnecting With The Daughter She Gave Up For Adoption?
While Roseanne Barr has been off of regular TV since being fired from her series, she’s kept her name on people’s minds with things like talk of a new sitcom where a farmer and her family will “save America with guns, the Bible, petty crime, and alcoholism,” and making contentious comments on podcasts.
The comedian/actor/Emmy winner (who’s been living in Hawaii and also spending time in Texas with her son and his family) recently appeared on the Dumb Blonde podcast, and when the host asked about the story behind giving a child up for adoption in 1970 and later beginning a relationship with her, Barr said:
I was at the Salvation Army Home for Unwed Mothers in Denver. I got to have her for a week. I gave her up to a Jewish family in children’s services there in Denver. So I knew I would always be able to find her, and I kept my name [on file as] Roseanne Barr…. I told her when they came to get her, ‘Well, I’ll see you when you’re 18.’
The star also noted that when she was a young child, she had a vision that told her she would not just be famous, but have her own TV show that would be named after her. That’s one of the reasons she kept her name the same and was so sure that her daughter would, somehow, find her. The She-Devil actress continued:
I always knew we’d find each other when she was 18, and so it happened when she was 17 and a half. I was on TV, and that’s how they found me…. [The adoptive parents] didn’t look for me. All she knew was that her mother was famous in Hollywood and Jewish. She thought it was Goldie Hawn [who was] her mom, because she looked just like Goldie Hawn. And so who found her was The National Enquirer, because my boyfriend at the time, I found out way later, he went to the Enquirer and told them I had a baby that I gave up.
Who would reveal information like that without permission? According to Barr, it was her eventual husband/Roseanne writer/co-star Tom Arnold who went to the tabloid with news about her baby. The Home on the Range voice talent also noted that the Enquirer did call her to let her know the story was going to run with or without her permission, and she told them “to fuck off.” She added:
The Enquirer called her, and she answered the phone, my daughter, and they said, ‘Would you like to know who your mother is?’ And she’s all excited thinking it’s going to be Goldie Hawn. And they go, ‘It’s Roseanne Barr.’ And her words are so hilarious. She goes, ‘Christ, I didn’t even know she was a Jew,’ and she was mad too, because I was fat and everything.
While this story, overall, is very sweet and pretty inspirational, I think we can all agree that it’s very Roseanne of her to reveal that not only was her daughter disappointed by finding out that her mom wasn’t Private Benjamin/Overboard star Goldie Hawn (mom to Wyatt Russell, Kate Hudson and Oliver Hudson) but “mad” because her rich and famous biological mother was “fat.” I don’t know what the “everything” Barr referred to means, but I’m guessing it wasn’t anything good in her kid’s eyes. Later, she noted:
She looked down, she said, at the coffee table. I was on the cover of the Enquirer. She said she started staring at it, and she goes, ‘Oh my God, I do look just like her!’ And she took the picture to the mirror and was going, ‘I do, I look exactly like her.’ And then she flew out the next day, her and her mom, her adoptive mom, and we met and it was wonderful. So we’ve been back together since then, and she is now 53.
This truly is a heart-warming story. And, the star notes that her daughter, Brandi, has a husband and son, and is “a wonderful woman.” Anyone looking to reconnect with a long-lost family member (whatever the reason for that separation) would wish for things to go as well as they did for Barr and her daughter.
