Story of Roseanne Barr's Daughter Brandi Who Was Put up for Adoption but Then Reunited with Her Mom

Publish date: 2024-05-20

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At the age of eighteen, Roseanne Barr gave her first born up for adoption, but seventeen years later, tabloids forced her hand in contacting her daughter that led to a surprising twist.

When Roseanne first realized she is pregnant, she planned on keeping the baby. Not married at the time, she got on welfare and rented a bug infested room for $50 where drunks lined the outside of the building.

THE ADOPTION

Her family had been unsupportive, and Roseanne decided to move to Denver and stayed at the Salvation Army home for single unmarried mothers. Nine days after her daughter Brandi’s birth on May 16, 1971, she gave her up to the Jewish Family & Children’s Service.

The family that adopted her had been waiting for a Jewish baby for seven years, but Roseanne knew she would see her daughter again. “The day they came to take my baby away, I whispered to her, “You remember this, I’ll see you when you’re 18.” I always knew that. I always knew we would get back,” she said during an interview with PEOPLE in 1989.

Three years after Brandi’s adoption, Roseanne married the postal worker Bill Pentland and went on to have three children, Jake, Jennifer, and Jessica. When the series “Roseanne” debuted in 1988, the family landed squarely in the public spotlight.

Roseanne’s increasing fame caused trouble in her marriage to Bill, and after they failed to work through their issues, the pair decided to split.

But with the actress’ demanding working schedule, her daughter Jessica started acting out drinking. “We weren’t there for the kids. My older daughter, Jessica, who’s 14, was drinking. She was sneaking out at night, taking my car, I had no idea,” Roseanne said.

THE TWIST

Amid their split in 1988, Jessica’s drinking got to the point where she received treatment at Westwood treatment center. Around the same time, Roseanne got caught off guard when a tabloid called her and said they had found the daughter she gave up for adoption.

“I was stunned. 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 said.

Because the tabloid knew where Brandi lived and who her adoptive parents were, Roseanne decided to hire a private investigator to track Brandi down so she could talk to her before she found out about her mother from the media.

Two days later she called her daughter, who got adopted by Gail and Stanley Brown in Denver. Coincidentally, Gail, and Roseanne’s mothers turned out to be best friends.

“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. So glad she came home,” Roseanne explained.

THE REUNION

The following month they met for the first time at the Westwood Marquis hotel, and their reunion was a teary but happy one as Roseanne added, “We just held on to each other, looking into each other’s eyes and crying as I told Brandi how much I had missed her for so long.”

The actress couldn’t help but notice that Brandi shared similarities with her half-siblings, whom she had yet to meet.

“She looks like me, except with blond hair and blue eyes. And she is so much like my three kids. That’s what blew me away—how much like my kids she really is,” she added.

ROSEANNE’S MARRIAGES

Bill and Roseanne’s divorce got finalized in 1990, and she married Tom Arnold four days later. Their marriage only lasted four years, and she married the bodyguard, Ben Thomas in 1995 and the couple had a son, Buck, born through IVF in August the same year. But their marriage didn’t last either, and they split in 2002.

In 2006, Roseanne Barr admitted that she loved her role as the family matriarch. “I love being a nosy neighbor, an interfering mother-in-law and all those wonderful things,” she said. “I started doing everything wrong with my children, but have spent the last 15 years trying to make up for it.”

BACK TO COMEDY

Ready to get her comedy going. Roseanne Bar and Andrew Dice Clay announced their new comedy tour in June 2019.

Inspired by the alleged language policing of comedians and the national obsession with political discourse, they put together “Mr. And Mrs. America.

“She’s a comic because she’s wacky. I’ve known her since we were kids,” Clay told Fox News. “When people ask about what she said, I say, ‘She’s a comic!’ We gotta stop policing comedians. This is America!”

In a video taken during her performance, she entertained the audience with a hilarious dance that quickly went viral.