Roseanne Barr Says She’s ‘Grateful’ a Tabloid Magazine Reunited Her with Daughter
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The comedian recalls their tearful reunion in the new documentary 'Roseanne Is America'
By Raven Brunner
Roseanne Barr opens up the new documentary Roseanne Is America about reuniting with her daughter Brandi Brown after putting her up for adoption
The actress had a daughter when she was 18 years old
She reconnected with her decades later because of a tabloid magazine's investigation
Roseanne Barr has her fame to thank for reuniting her with her oldest daughter.
The actress and comedian, 72, opens up in the new documentary Roseanne is America about reuniting with her daughter Brandi Brown after putting her up for adoption shortly after she was born.
The actress recalls having a daughter when she was 18 years old and being "shipped away to the Salvation Army Home for Unwed Mothers" in Denver, where she gave birth in May 1971.
"When I gave my daughter up for adoption, I said to her, 'I’ll see you again when you're 18 because I’m not going to change my name, and I’m going to be famous. I’m going to have my own show named Roseanne,' " Barr recalls in the documentary.
Roseanne Barr and children Jake Pentland and Brandi Brown attend the World Premiere Documentary: "Roseanne For President!" during the 2015
Roseanne Barr (center) with son Jake Pentland and daughter Brandi Brown at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City.
Gary Gershoff/WireImage
She was eventually reunited with Brown when the National Enquirer, a tabloid magazine, found her daughter's personal information. "It all came out because when I got famous, the National Enquirer found my daughter by bribing someone in records in Colorado for my name, her name and her adoptive parents’ name," she explains.
Now, in retrospect, Barr says she does not harbor any ill will towards the magazine: "Am I upset about it? No. I’m grateful."
Earlier in the documentary, Barr opens up about the circumstances that surrounded her first pregnancy. "Mom didn’t want the neighbors to be ashamed of her," she claims. "When I look back on that, I about bust a gut laughing because they were all drunks and perverts."
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The Emmy winner is mother to five children, including Brown. She shares three kids — daughters Jessica and Jennifer and son Jake — with her first husband Bill Pentland. She also welcomed a son Buck with her ex-husband Ben Thomas.
Barr shared a photo with Brown in a 2024 Instagram post in which they wore matching "Love" shirts and thick beanies. The actress called her daughter her "oldest bb" in the caption. She also stated that Brown was 52 years old at the time, and they were reunited when she was 17 years old. "[God] is good," Barr wrote.
The TV star spoke about the reunion in an October 1989 issue of PEOPLE, where she said, "A tabloid called to tell me, 'We found your daughter.' I was stunned. They had gotten hold of the birth certificate of the baby girl I bore out of wedlock and gave up for adoption after nine days in Denver when I was 18."
Barr recalled feeling "pissed off" towards the magazine at first. "I had left information allowing her to find me when she turned 21. I had even told my own kids about the adoption a year earlier because I knew she was 17 and might try to find me,” she explained.
"Now the paper knew where she lived, her school, who her mother and father were," she continued. "They knew everything but had only told her that her mother was someone famous. They had been asking questions, showing up in [her adoptive parents'] garage, scaring the s--- out of them. I begged them to stay the f--- away. Then I panicked and hired a private detective to track her down rather than have her read about me being her mom in a tabloid, which is so dirty and sleazy."
Two days later, she called Brown, and found out she was raised by someone who had connections to her own family.
Roseanne Barr in 'Roseanne Is America'.
Roseanne Is America
“She is now named Brandi Brown, and she was raised by Stanley and Gail Brown of Denver. What was really weird was that Gail Brown's mother's best friend is my mother's best friend," Barr said. "It was a small Jewish community between Salt Lake and Denver, and everyone had known about the Browns adopting a little girl out of Denver. They were friends with a lot of my family, but nobody ever put it together."
"I'm so glad I found her," the actress added.
As for their in-person reunion, Barr recalled, “I turned around and felt this powerful magnet. We looked at each other, Brandi jumped out of her seat, and we started running toward each other. We embraced and wouldn't let go of each other, hugging and crying.”
Roseanne is America, directed by Joel Gilbert, explores Barr’s "unusual upbringing and her extraordinarily successful career in comedy and television," per a synopsis. It also addresses the 2018 controversy in which the revival of her namesake show was canceled after she sent a tweet likening President Barack Obama’s former advisor Valerie Jarrett to an ape.
Roseanne in America is now available to purchase on video on demand.
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