Roseanne Barr's ex-husband Tom Arnold has claimed his former partner wanted her sitcom to be cancelled, as he weighed in on the tweets which caused her show to be axed by ABC.
The 'Roseanne' actress has been embroiled in controversy this week after racist comments made on social media resulted in US TV network ABC pulling her hugely popular sitcom.
Now, her former partner has told The Hollywood Reporter: "It had to happen. And I am going to tell you the truth, she wanted it to happen, if you saw how her tweets escalated this weekend.
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"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."
The 65-year-old writer was married to the comedienne for four years until 1994, and previously worked on 'Roseanne' from 1988.
He added: "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.'
"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."
His comments about the incident come after Barr, also 65, blamed her racist tweet on sleeping pills.
She likened Valerie Jarrett - a former aide of Barack Obama - to an ape and accused her of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood political party on Twitter, and later claimed that her use of the prescription drug Ambien was to blame for her post.
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Meanwhile, Barr has taken to Twitter to reveal that she "begged" ABC to not cancel her sitcom. She wrote: "I begged Ben Sherwood at ABC 2 let me apologize & make amends (sic)"
The American star explained that she'd promised to correct her error.
She confessed: "I begged them not to cancel the show. I told them I was willing to do anything & asked 4 help in making things right.
"I'd worked doing publicity4 them 4free for weeks, traveling, thru bronchitis. I begged4 ppls jobs. (sic)"