Tom Arnold Says Roseanne Barr Is “Having Mental Issues Right Now” Amid ‘Roseanne’ Cancellation

Just moments after the reboot of the hit sitcom Roseanne was canceled following Roseanne Barr's racist tweet, her ex-husband Tom Arnold is speaking out about the mental state of his ex-wife, whom he was married to from 1990 until 1994.

When speaking with CNN's Anderson Cooper, the comedian shared that "obviously" Roseanne is suffering from mental illness. "She’s having mental issues right now but that doesn’t make it ok. They had to cancel the show," he said, before adding that he too has battled with mental illness. "Right before we got married I went to rehab for drugs and alcohol stuff and she was there for me, and then after we got married we dealt with her mental issues as a family. And it was something she dealt with."

"I could see it coming." Tom Arnold, Roseanne Barr's ex-husband and former writer on the sitcom "Roseanne," says he was not surprised by the actress' racist tweets that led to the cancellation of the ABC show. https://t.co/sJNuGnWfjk pic.twitter.com/RQexKgwaXu

— CNN (@CNN) May 31, 2018

In another sit-down with The Hollywood Reporter, Tom even claimed that Roseanne wanted the show to be over. "It had to happen," he shared. "And I am going to tell you the truth, she wanted it to happen, if you saw how her tweets escalated this weekend." Tom added, "If it hadn’t happened yesterday, this season would have been so awful for everyone every day because she would have felt like she was [being] taken advantage [of], just like when I left the show."

Tom was also shocked that the people who worked on the show even let Roseanne have her phone. "ABC lost maybe $1 billion from this; this show was grinding out money hand over fist and they lost it all because somebody didn’t say, ‘Get that phone out of her hand,'" he told THR. "She’s not going to go on TV and say these things. But you put that phone in her hand and she is a loose cannon."

ABC canceled Roseanne on Tuesday, May 29, after Roseanne shared a racist remark about Valerie Jarrett, one of former President Barack Obama's top aides. "Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj," she wrote in a since-deleted tweet.

Shortly after, ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey followed up with a statement: "Roseanne's Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show."

Roseanne and Tom.

After the cancellation, Roseanne shared a Twitter apology to her fans. "Don’t feel sorry for me, guys!! I just want to apologize to the hundreds of people,and wonderful writers (all liberal) and talented actors who lost their jobs on my show due to my stupid tweet," she wrote. "Guys I did something unforgivable so do not defend me. It was 2 in the morning and I was Ambien tweeting — it was memorial day too — I went [too] far and do not want it defended. It was egregious Indefensible [sic]. I made a mistake I wish I hadn’t but… don’t defend it please."