Roseanne Barr Recalls Inability to ‘Lie’ After Waking Up From a Coma Following Car Accident at 15

Roseanne Barr recalled the traumatic injury she endured after being hit by a car when she was a teenager.

“The hood ornament went in my head and I got a brain concussion and a head concussion,” the actress, 72, said on the Monday, June 23, episode of Bunnie XO’s “Dumb Blonde” podcast. “I was in a coma and all that stuff and when I woke up, I had some kind of malfunction in the brain.”

The incident occurred when Barr was around 15 years old and she was in the hospital for “about nine months.” She explained that when she awoke from the coma, she was unable to lie despite wanting “to be a liar like everybody else.”

“The next day it was, just, I had to tell the truth,” she said. “‘Cause I couldn’t remember my lies.”

Barr shared that she was caught in multiple lies so she ended up having to “tell the truth” because “it’s simpler.” The injury led to Barr realizing that the truth was better to say and hear in the long run.

“I wanna hear the truth so I don’t have to wade through the other person’s lies and bulls*** to figure out what lying bulls*** they’re telling me. That’s wasting my whole life,” she reflected. “Just tell me the truth. I can deal with the truth. I’d rather have the truth and I’d rather tell the truth.”

Barr joked that being honest “saves a lot of time,” which gives her “more time for shopping on Amazon.”

Being unable to lie wasn’t the only issue Barr claims she dealt with after waking up from the coma. The accident also caused “brain damage” and “seizures.” The Roseanne alum also suffered from a “dissociative problem” that left her “completely being separated” from her body. However, Barr claimed that the condition “helped” her when it came to acting.

“When I go into this one certain mind space, I can write 150 jokes in an hour because I just focus,” she said. “So there’s intense focus.”

Barr’s injury didn’t hold her back from following her dreams. She got her start as a comedian before starring on Roseanne. During her time on the 90s sitcom, Barr earned a Golden Globe and Emmy. The series originally ran from 1988 to 1997 before it was revived in 2018.

While Barr initially signed on to rejoin the revival, she was fired from the show following a series of controversial comments. The show moved on without Barr and was rebranded as The Conners. The Conners came to an end earlier this year after seven seasons.