In a new interview that has reignited controversy, actress and comedian Roseanne Barr says she doesn’t take personal responsibility for the racist tweet that led to the downfall of her hit show and career in 2018. Instead, she blames God.

Speaking to Variety, the 72-year-old entertainer claimed it was divine prompting that inspired her now-infamous tweet about Valerie Jarrett, a former senior advisor to President Obama. “The way I feel about it is God told me to do what I did, and it was a nuclear bomb,” Barr said.

The tweet in question read, “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby = vj,” referring to Jarrett. The post was widely condemned as racist and led to ABC canceling the reboot of Roseanne just months after it premiered to record-breaking ratings.

Barr, however, continues to defend the tweet as a misunderstanding. “I didn’t know she was Black,” she insisted in the interview. “Other people were so racist that they thought my tweet said Black people looked like monkeys when it was about Planet of the Apes, which is a movie about fascism,” she added.

She went further, referencing the movie’s origins, saying, “Rod Serling himself said it’s about the Jews in Germany. It is not a movie about Black people.”

Barr described how the moment unfolded. She said she was lying in bed with her laptop when she saw a photo comparing Jarrett to actress Helena Bonham Carter in Planet of the Apes makeup. “They looked like Xerox copies of each other, so I captioned it,” Barr recalled. “It was a perfect caption.”

She also tried to shift the narrative by pointing to the tweet’s impact: “Over 2 million Americans Googled Valerie Jarrett and the Iran deal afterward. That was my intent. So whatever.”

At the time of the incident, Barr claimed she was under the influence of Ambien and alcohol and apologized publicly. But now, she says the apology only made things worse. “I regret apologizing,” she told Variety. “It only got worse when I expressed remorse.”

The fallout from the tweet was swift and public. ABC quickly canceled the Roseanne reboot and launched a spinoff, The Conners, without Barr. Her character was written off the show by way of an opioid overdose. Barr blasted that decision in the interview, calling it “stupid and shortsighted.”

“I felt very pissed off that they stole my rights and killed me,” she said. “I don’t know how they answer to their shareholders for canceling me before even one sponsor pulled out.”

This isn’t the first time Barr has pointed fingers. In 2019, she told The Washington Post that her co-star Sara Gilbert “destroyed the show and my life” by publicly condemning the tweet. Gilbert had called Barr’s remarks “abhorrent” in a 2018 post.

For Christian audiences, Barr’s claim that “God told [her] to do it” may be particularly troubling. While many believers understand that God speaks in different ways, claiming divine endorsement for a message widely condemned as racist and hurtful invites deeper reflection on the responsibility that comes with invoking the name of God.

As Christians, we are called to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15) and to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry (James 1:19). Whether or not Barr truly believes she was following divine direction, her story serves as a reminder that our words have consequences—and that blaming God for harmful choices may only deepen the wounds.