Roseanne Barr Is ‘Grateful’ Tabloid Reunited her With Daughter She Put Up for Adoption

Roseanne Barr has her fame to thank for reuniting her along with her oldest daughter.

The actress and comic, 72, opens up within the new documentary Roseanne is America about reuniting along with her daughter Brandi Brown after placing her up for adoption shortly after she was born.

The actress recollects having a daughter when she was 18 years outdated and being “shipped away to the Salvation Military House for Unwed Moms” in Denver, the place she gave beginning in Could 1971.

“After I gave my daughter up for adoption, I stated to her, ‘I’ll see you once more once you’re 18 as a result of I’m not going to alter my identify, and I’m going to be well-known. I’m going to have my very own present named Roseanne,’ ” Barr recollects within the documentary. 

She was finally reunited with Brown when the Nationwide Enquirer, a tabloid journal, discovered her daughter’s private data. “All of it got here out as a result of after I bought well-known, the Nationwide Enquirer discovered my daughter by bribing somebody in data in Colorado for my identify, her identify and her adoptive dad and mom’ identify,” she explains. 

Now, on reflection, Barr says she doesn’t harbor any unwell will in direction of the journal: “Am I upset about it? No. I’m grateful.”

Earlier within the documentary, Barr opens up concerning the circumstances that surrounded her first being pregnant. “Mother didn’t need the neighbors to be ashamed of her,” she claims. “After I look again on that, I about bust a intestine laughing as a result of they have been all drunks and perverts.”

The Emmy winner is mom to 5 youngsters, together with Brown. She shares three children — daughters Jessica and Jennifer and son Jake — along with her first husband Invoice Pentland. She additionally welcomed a son Buck along with her ex-husband Ben Thomas.

Barr shared a photograph with Brown in a 2024 Instagram put up by which they wore matching “Love” shirts and thick beanies. The actress referred to as her daughter her “oldest bb” within the caption. She additionally said that Brown was 52 years outdated on the time, they usually have been reunited when she was 17 years outdated. “[God] is nice,” Barr wrote.

The TV star spoke concerning the reunion in an October 1989 difficulty of PEOPLE, the place she stated, “A tabloid referred to as to inform me, ‘We discovered your daughter.’ I used to be shocked. They’d gotten maintain of the beginning certificates of the child woman I bore out of wedlock and gave up for adoption after 9 days in Denver after I was 18.”

Barr recalled feeling “pissed off” in direction of the journal at first. “I had left data permitting her to seek out me when she turned 21. I had even advised my very own children concerning the adoption a 12 months earlier as a result of I knew she was 17 and would possibly attempt to discover me,” she defined.

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“Now the paper knew the place she lived, her faculty, who her mom and father have been,” she continued. “They knew every part however had solely advised her that her mom was somebody well-known. They’d been asking questions, displaying up in [her adoptive parents’] storage, scaring the s— out of them. I begged them to remain the f— away. Then I panicked and employed a personal detective to trace her down somewhat than have her examine me being her mother in a tabloid, which is so soiled and sleazy.”

Two days later, she referred to as Brown, and came upon she was raised by somebody who had connections to her family. 

“She is now named Brandi Brown, and she or he was raised by Stanley and Gail Brown of Denver. What was actually bizarre was that Gail Brown’s mom’s greatest pal is my mom’s greatest pal,” Barr stated. “It was a small Jewish neighborhood between Salt Lake and Denver, and everybody had identified concerning the Browns adopting somewhat woman out of Denver. They have been mates with a variety of my household, however no person ever put it collectively.”

“I am so glad I discovered her,” the actress added. 

As for his or her in-person reunion, Barr recalled, “I rotated and felt this highly effective magnet. We checked out one another, Brandi jumped out of her seat, and we began working towards one another. We embraced and would not let go of one another, hugging and crying.” 

Roseanne is America, directed by Joel Gilbert, explores Barr’s “uncommon upbringing and her terribly profitable profession in comedy and tv,” per a synopsis. It additionally addresses the 2018 controversy by which the revival of her namesake present was canceled after she despatched a tweet likening President Barack Obama’s former advisor Valerie Jarrett to an ape. 

Roseanne in America is now out there to buy on video on demand.