Roseanne Barr is no stranger to controversy.
Long before ABC chose to cancel the reboot of Roseanne in 2018, the actress made headlines for a variety of reasons including a controversial National Anthem performance and a run for president.
Years after Barr’s Roseanne character was killed off The Conners, Us Weekly learned exclusive details about her private life in Texas, where she lives with her son Jake Pentland and his family.
In addition to working on “The Roseanne Barr” podcast, Barr spends her days spoiling her grandchildren, exploring the family’s large property and trying to stay out of trouble.
Roseanne Barr: 25 Things You Don’t Know About Me!
“We have 30 acres and live up in what they call ‘Hill Country,’” Pentland shared with Us in April 2025. “Roseanne also drives the tractor often, which allows her to mow the lawn. She drives around. She occasionally runs into trees, but just keeps the yard up.”
Regardless of where she calls home, Barr can’t help but make a few headlines for her actions and beliefs. Keeping reading as Us Weekly takes a look back at some of the star’s most shocking and controversial moments through the years.
National Anthem
The actress famously sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” ahead of a San Diego Padres vs. Cincinnati Reds game in July 1990 — and it was screechy, to say the least. She ended the performance by spitting and grabbing her crotch, mimicking the actions of some baseball players. Her rendition was widely criticized and even caught the attention of then-president George H.W. Bush, who called it “disgraceful.”
Adolf Hitler Photos
Barr, who is Jewish, posed as Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler in a July 2009 photo shoot for the satirical Jewish magazine Heeb. The theme was her idea and featured her wearing a faux mustache and a swastika armband while holding a tray of burnt gingerbread men cookies. Barr defended the photos in a 2011 episode of The Green Room With Paul Provenza, saying there was “another, deeper layer” to them.
Presidential Campaign
The Emmy winner announced on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno in August 2011 that she planned to run for president as a Green Party candidate in the 2012 election. She later switched over to the Peace and Freedom Party ticket and often used her platform to criticize her former Green Party rival Jill Stein. Barr ultimately finished in sixth place in the popular vote.
George Zimmerman Tweet
Barr tweeted the home address of George Zimmerman’s parents, Robert and Gladys Zimmerman, in March 2012 after George shot and killed unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin. The comedian added, “If Zimmerman isn’t arrested I’ll [retweet] his address again. maybe go 2 his house myself.” Robert and Gladys sued Barr in March 2014, claiming they were forced to go into hiding for years because of the tweet. The lawsuit was dismissed in July 2015 because the address was considered to be public information.
David Hogg Tweet
The TV star spread a disproven conspiracy theory on Twitter that David Hogg, one of the survivors of the February 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, gave a Nazi salute at the gun control demonstration March for Our Lives. She later deleted the tweet.
Valerie Jarrett Tweet and Show Cancellation
Barr called Valerie Jarrett, an ex-adviser to former president Barack Obama, an offspring of “Muslim Brotherhood & Planet of the Apes” in a since-deleted tweet in May 2018. She later apologized and called the racist post a “joke [that] was in bad taste.” Hours later, ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey announced that the reboot of Roseanne had been canceled, saying in a statement, “Roseanne’s Twitter is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values.”
Roseanne’s Interpretation of the LGBTQ+ Community
The Roseanne alum raised some eyebrows in April 2019 when she started discussing the LGBTQ+ community in a YouTube video.
“All that LGBTQ stuff, I put the ‘Q’ in LGBTQ, OK?” she said. ‘Cause I am queer as two motherf***ers. I’m queer. I’m alien. I don’t belong here with all these people. They make no sense. They are very queer. And that makes me … a queer, I guess?”
According to GLAAD, “queer” is an adjective used by some people, particularly younger individuals, to describe their sexual orientation if it is not exclusively heterosexual.
Coronavirus Theories
In April 2020, the comedian shared a hot take on the coronavirus pandemic while appearing on Norm Macdonald’s YouTube series.
“I think they’re just trying to get rid of all my generation,” Barr speculated on Quarantined With Norm Macdonald. “The boomer ladies that, you know, that inherited their, you know, are widows. They inherited the money, so they got to go wherever the money is and figure out a way to get it from people.”
At the time of the podcast taping, COVID-19 had taken the lives of more than 73,000 people worldwide since December 2019, with cases reported in nearly every country.
The End of ‘The Conners’
Ever since Barr’s Roseanne character was killed off by an opioid overdose in a 2018 episode of The Conners, the actress has not been complimentary about the show.
“I AIN’T DEAD, BITCHES!!!!” she shared via X after the show premiered in October 2018.
Despite Barr’s exit from the show, The Conners had a successful seven-season run. When the series concluded in 2025, Barr claimed to have no idea.
“We don’t care about cheap knockoffs,” her son, Jake Pentland, told Us Weekly in April 2025. “We support the real brands. We only pay attention to things that matter to the American people.”
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