Roseanne Barr’s new documentary, “Roseanne Is America,” includes a reflection on reuniting with the daughter she placed for adoption as an infant.
In 1971, at age 18, Barr was sent to the Salvation Army Home for Unwed Mothers in Denver, where she gave birth to a baby girl.
Barr said she wasn’t equipped, emotionally or financially, to raise a child at that point in her life. And then there was the matter of family.
“Mom didn’t want the neighbors to be ashamed of her,” Barr says in the film.
Before signing away her parental rights, she recalls telling her newborn, “I’ll see you again when you’re 18, because I’m not going to change my name, I’m going to be famous. I’m going to have my own show named ‘Roseanne.’”
Her predictions came true. Nearly 18 years later, in 1989, she came face-to-face with the daughter she had placed for adoption, a woman named Brandi Brown. By then, Barr had achieved the fame she once envisioned, starring in the eponymous hit sitcom, “Roseanne,” which ran from 1988 to 1997.
Barr expressed gratitude to the National Enquirer, the tabloid that tracked down Brown, for doing what she acknowledges was a deeply invasive but ultimately life-changing act.
“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.
“Am I upset about it? No. I am grateful,” Barr adds.
In a 1989 interview with People, Barr described feeling an almost magnetic pull toward Brown when they met again.
“We looked at each other, Brandi jumped out of her seat, and we started running toward each other,” Barr shared. “We embraced and wouldn’t let go of each other, hugging and crying.”
Brown, who lives in Colorado, leads the 1 Billion Acts of Peace Campaign, which invites people around the world to log meaningful actions that help make the world a more peaceful and compassionate place.
On Mother’s Day, she shared photos with both her adoptive mother, Gail Brown, and with Barr, honoring “the amazing women who helped shape me.”
Barr is also the mother of Jessica, 50, Jennifer, 49, and Jake, 47, from her marriage to Bill Pentland. She shares son Buck, 30, with her ex-husband Ben Thomas.
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