Roseanne Barr Tried to Mend Rift With John Goodman: Here’s What Happened

Martin Holmes October 21, 2026, 9:59 am

Roseanne Barr and John Goodman — Rachel Luna/Getty Images; Manny Carabel/Getty Images

What To Know

Roseanne Barr revealed she is “heartbroken” over losing contact with her former Roseanne costar John Goodman.
She said that Goodman turned down a cameo in her new sitcom Meemaw.
Their relationship became strained after ABC canceled the Roseanne revival in 2018 following Barr’s controversial tweet.

Roseanne Barr said she’s “heartbroken” that she’s no longer in contact with her former on-screen husband, John Goodman, and revealed she tried to heal the rift between them, but he turned down a cameo in her new sitcom.

In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Barr was asked how she gets along with her former Roseanne castmates, Goodman, who played patriarch Dan Conner, and Laurie Metcalf, who played Barr’s younger sister, Jackie Harris. “I don’t,” she answered.

Asked if she has any contact with the pair, Barr replied, “Of course not.” When the interviewer told the comedian that they assumed “you guys were like a family,” Barr responded, “I did too.”

“Nobody is more brokenhearted than me,” Barr added. “I just choose to remember the fun and the good times.” She then revealed that her son called Goodman to ask if he’d make a cameo appearance in her self-financed sitcom Meemaw, but he “declined.”

Barr and Goodman played wife and husband across nine seasons of Roseanne between 1988 and 1997 and reprised the roles for the 2018 revival. However, ABC canceled the new series after Barr shared a tweet comparing former Barack Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett to “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby.”

Former network president Channing Dungey said at the time, “Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show.”

Carsey-Werner / Paramount Television / ABC / courtesy Everett Collection

Barr later deleted the post and apologized, but ABC stood by its decision and rebooted the Roseanne revival as The Conners, with Goodman in the lead role and Barr’s character being killed off off-screen.

At the time, Goodman defended Barr, whom he described as a “work friend,” against accusations of racism. “I know, I know, for a fact that she’s not a racist,” he told The Sunday Times.

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In a 2023 interview with Variety, Goodman admitted that he “felt bad” for Barr after what happened. “I just feel terrible about the whole thing,” he said. “We had a great time. And I love her. She’s just her own person.”

Despite his support, Goodman told The Hollywood Reporter last year that he and Barr hadn’t spoken “for about seven or eight years,” adding, “I’d rather doubt if she wants to talk to me.”

Earlier this month, Barr revealed she was working on her new sitcom, Meemaw, which is funded by private investors and doesn’t yet have a distributor. The show follows Barr as the matriarch of a “mixed-race family of preppers in Texas” who is on a quest to “take down a criminal empire and throw her granddaughter the most fantastic bat mitzvah.”

The series stars The Sopranos actress Drea de Matteo, SNL alum Randy Quaid, What We Do in the Shadows actor Doug Jones, and Family Time star Omar Gooding (brother of Cuba Gooding Jr.). The show will also feature guest appearances from Jon Lovitz, Tony Hinchcliffe, and Kim Congdon.