Roseanne Barr is opening up about her emotional reunion with her daughter Brandi Brown, whom she gave birth to when she was just 18 years old and put up for adoption. The actress, now 72, credits a tabloid magazine for reuniting her with her oldest child.

In the new documentary "Roseanne is America," Barr recalls having a daughter in May 1971, and being "shipped away to the Salvation Army Home for Unwed Mothers" in Denver. She gave birth to Brown, whom she eventually reunited with decades later.

Barr shares that she told her daughter, "I'll see you again when you're 18 because I'm not going to change my name, and I'm going to have my own show named Roseanne." She adds that she was eventually reunited with Brown when the National Enquirer, a tabloid magazine, found her daughter's personal information. "It all came out because when I got famous, the National Enquirer found my daughter by bribing someone in records in Colorado for my name, her name and her adoptive parents' name."

Despite initial reservations, Barr says she is grateful for the reunion. "Am I upset about it? No. I'm grateful." She also opens up about the circumstances surrounding her first pregnancy, saying that her mother didn't want the neighbors to be ashamed of her.

Barr shares that she has five children, including Brown. She shares three kids - daughters Jessica and Jennifer and son Jake - with her first husband Bill Pentland. She also welcomed a son, Buck, with her ex-husband Ben Thomas.

The actress shared a photo with Brown in a 2024 Instagram post, where they wore matching "Love" shirts and thick beanies. Barr called her daughter her "oldest bb" in the caption, stating that Brown was 52 years old at the time, and they were reunited when she was 17 years old. "[God] is good," Barr wrote.

Barr spoke about the reunion in an October 1989 issue of PEOPLE, saying, "A tabloid called to tell me, 'We found your daughter.' I was stunned. They had gotten hold of the birth certificate of the baby girl I bore out of wedlock and gave up for adoption after nine days in Denver when I was 18."

Barr recalled feeling "pissed off" towards the magazine at first. "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."

The TV star spoke about the reunion, saying, "Now the paper knew where she lived, her school, who her mother and father were. They knew everything but had only told her that her mother was someone famous. They had been asking questions, showing up in [her adoptive parents'] garage, scaring the s--- out of them. I begged them to stay the f--- away. Then I panicked and hired a private detective to track her down rather than have her read about me being her mom in a tabloid, which is so dirty and sleazy."

Two days later, she called Brown, and found out she was raised by someone who had connections to her own family. "She is now named Brandi Brown, and she was raised by Stanley and Gail Brown of Denver. What was really weird was that Gail Brown's mother's best friend is my mother's best friend."

Barr added, "I'm so glad I found her. I turned around and felt this powerful magnet. We looked at each other, Brandi jumped out of her seat, and we started running toward each other. We embraced and wouldn't let go of each other, hugging and crying."

Roseanne is America, directed by Joel Gilbert, explores Barr's "unusual upbringing and her extraordinarily successful career in comedy and television," per a synopsis. It also addresses the 2018 controversy in which the revival of her namesake show was canceled after she sent a tweet likening President Barack Obama's former advisor Valerie Jarrett to an ape.

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Roseanne in America is now available to purchase on video on demand.

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