John Goodman hasn’t spoken to Roseanne Barr in ‘7 or 8 years’

John Goodman and Roseanne Barr haven’t exactly kept in touch since their days playing a married couple on Roseanne.

In fact, Goodman said in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter that he doesn’t think he’s spoken to Barr “for about seven or eight years.” That time frame would line up with their popular, briefly revived sitcom being canceled at ABC in 2018, hours after Barr posted a racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett, the former senior adviser to President Obama. Within three weeks, the Roseanne reboot was overhauled without Barr — whose titular character was killed off — and rechristened The Conners.

When asked by THR if he’d spoken to Barr about the Conners finale, in which his character goes to visit her character’s grave, Goodman said, “No. I’d rather doubt if she wants to talk to me. We haven’t talked for about seven or eight years.”

That said, he has nothing but fond memories of their time playing Dan and Roseanne Conner together, first in nine seasons of Roseanne‘s original run from 1988 to 1997, and then again in the revived 10th season.

“We hit it off from jump street. She made me laugh, and I made her laugh, and wow, it was so much fun,” Goodman recalled. “We’d get so many viewers for the show back then — 20, 30 million people. Things are so different now, but it was a special time.”

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to representatives for Barr for comment on Goodman’s remarks.

Shortly after Barr’s fateful 2018 tweet, ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey said it was “abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show.”

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Prior to ABC’s decision, Barr tried to do damage control by tweeting, “I apologize to Valerie Jarrett and to all Americans. I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks. I should have known better. Forgive me-my joke was in bad taste.”

At the time, Goodman defended Barrsaying, “I’ll put it this way, I was surprised at the (network’s) response. And that’s probably all I should say about it.” He did add, “I know for a fact that she’s not a racist.”

At the Monte-Carlo Television Festival in 2023, Goodman addressed his prior support for his former costar, saying he had no regrets. “I remember attending some kind of junket where they saw the pilot, and then the interviews, and it just turned into an attack,” he told Variety. “It made me really uncomfortable witnessing them go after Roseanne.”

He continued, “Yeah, I felt bad for her. And then, yeah… I just feel terrible about the whole thing. You know, we had a great time. And I love her. She’s just her own person.”

Even so, when asked if he would work with her again, he was hesitant. “I don’t know,” he replied. “If she’d like to… I just don’t know. I miss her. I wish her well.”

The Conners aired its final episode in April, after seven seasons on ABC.