Roseanne Barr: A Life in the Spotlight

Early Life

Barr was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the United States, to a Jewish family. However, her parents also raised her as a Mormon stepchild.

She is the eldest of four children born to Helen (née Davis), an accountant and cashier, and Jerome Hershel "Jerry" Barr, who worked as a salesperson.

At the age of 17, she gave birth to her first daughter, Brandi Ann Brown, and put her up for adoption.

Roseanne rose to prominence in the early 1980s with her stand-up comedy routine, which humorously depicted the life of a typical American housewife from a middle-class background.

Her success as a stand-up comedian led to the creation of her own sitcom on ABC, aptly titled "Roseanne." The show aired from 1988 to 1997 and featured award-winning actress Laurie Metcalf, actor John Goodman, and young actress Sara Gilbert, among others.

After the end of the series, Roseanne hosted her talk show, "The Roseanne Show," which did not achieve significant success, prompting her return to the stand-up comedy circuit.

In 2003, she started hosting a cooking show and also appeared in a reality show centered around cooking.

Personal Life

Roseanne has been married three times in the past, with her second husband being the convert to Judaism, Tom Arnold. Since 2003, she has been in a relationship with Johnny Argent. She has five children.

In 1994, Roseanne Barr publicly admitted to suffering from various mental health disorders, including agoraphobia, fear of crowds, dissociative identity disorder, chronic depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and more.

She attributes her outspokenness to her battle with these conditions. In her autobiography, she revealed a troubled childhood marked by physical, verbal, and sexual abuse, which resulted in her hospitalization in a psychiatric facility for a year at the age of 16.

Political Engagement

In August 2011, Barr announced her intention to run for the 2012 U.S. Presidential elections. In February 2012, she officially declared her candidacy as a representative of the Green Party.

After losing in the Green Party's primary, she joined the Peace and Freedom Party and ran for President of the United States. In the 2012 elections, she received 67,326 votes.

In the 2016 presidential elections, Barr supported the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, stating, "We would be so lucky if Trump won." This endorsement led to controversy and further division of opinions.

During a visit to the West Bank in 2019, Roseanne Barr expressed a strong affinity for Israel, stating, "If I could just say it in a very simple way, the Arabs are the West, and the Jews are from Judea, and this place is the roots of us.

It's our birthplace, it's our heart, it's our soul, and so we come from here, and we're not going to leave, no matter what people say, the lies they tell, their anti-Semitism, their half-truths.

We stand here because here we come from, and so it's a modern miracle that we, out of all the nations on Earth, were chosen by God to return to the beginning of our 'Genesis.'

It's ours. It's our 'Genesis,' and we're not going anywhere, and we're going to stay here, and we're going to stand here, and I don't care what people say, the Jews are heroes here, pioneers. I prefer the term 'pioneer' to 'settler.' These pioneers came here to protect Judaism as a whole, and when I say Judaism, I mean our religion, our people, our nation, and God. We have this right."

Controversies

Roseanne Barr stirred controversy in December 2008 when she criticized Israel and the IDF, calling them "Nazis" in her blog and claiming that "Jews are leaving Zionism." However, by 2013, her stance on Israel had shifted significantly, and she became a fervent supporter of the country. In early 2019, she made her first visit to Israel, accompanied by Israel's Minister of Culture Miri Regev.

In May 2018, Barr posted two provocative tweets on Twitter that led to her firing from her job at ABC. In one tweet about Valerie Jarrett, a former advisor to President Barack Obama, Barr wrote, "Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj."

In another tweet, she referred to George Soros as a "Nazi." Despite her apologies, ABC announced the cancellation of her show. Barr claimed that her firing was due to her support for President Trump.

Roseanne Barr's life has been marked by both success and controversy, making her a complex and multifaceted figure in the world of entertainment and politics. Her journey from a troubled past to comedic stardom, political activism, and personal growth reflects the complexities of her character and the evolving nature of her beliefs.