Roseanne Barr has blamed a tweet in which she compared an African American woman to an ape on the influence of sleeping pills.
The TV star, who falsely said that Valerie Jarrett, former advisor to Barack Obama, has connections to the Muslim Brotherhood, says her tweet was written after she had taken the prescription sleeping pill Ambien.
ABC, the network that airs the sitcom Roseanne, cancelled the show on Tuesday and said it would not be renewed for a second season after what it called “abhorrent” and “repugnant” tweets.
Barr has since defended herself, writing: “It was 2 in the morning and I was Ambien tweeting,” Barr tweeted. “It was Memorial Day too. I went too far and do not want it defended. It was egregious [and] indefensible.”
“I think Joe Rogan is right about Ambien,” she added, referencing the comedian and UFC host who described the drug as “scary stuff”. “Not giving excuses for what I did (tweeted) but I’ve done weird stuff while on Ambien: cracked eggs on the wall at 2am etc.”
Barr will appear on Rogan’s podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, this Friday. On Wednesday, Rogan tweeted a link to a Huffington Post story titled The Disturbing Side Effect of Ambien, the No 1 Prescription Sleep Aid.
Ambien is also known as zolpidem, which is part of the Z drug family, a group of medications designed to help people sleep.
The revival of Roseanne was the most popular US show of 2018, with an average of 18 million viewers per episode. The reboot’s debut episode attracted 27.3 million viewers, including those using on-demand services.
Barr subsequently wrote: “I apologise to Valerie Jarrett and to all Americans. I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks. I should have known better. Forgive me – my joke was in bad taste.”
In a second statement she said: “Today my words caused hundreds of hardworking people to lose their jobs. I sincerely apologise to the audience that has embraced my work for decades.”
Barr’s agency, ICM Partners, has dropped her as a client. Co-star Sara Gilbert, who plays Darlene, condemned the tweets as “abhorrent”, and the actor and comedian Kumail Nanjiani tweeted: “I’m glad Roseanne is canceled. The backlash to its cancellation is going to be a deafening nightmare. Nothing good has come of this entire thing.”